Naruto Way of the Shining Hand
by Veive
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto didn't receive the time and attention he needed to really shine until after the Chuunin Exam. Hyuuga Hinata was constantly put down and belittled. What would happen if they helped give each other the things they needed most?
1. Chapter 1

Uzumaki Ayame walked quietly into the Hokage's office.

She felt dread like a cold lump of lead settle into her stomach at the stern countenance that waited for her; It wasn't often that her great grandmother mixed clan business with her official duties to the village.  
Considering the fact that between the current Hokage and her husband they had ruled the village for nearly eighty years she didn't often need to.  
Uzumaki Hinata was a living legend and she had a long and successful history of getting what she wanted.

"You wanted to see me, Ma'am."

"Sit." The old woman replied icily. Ayame complied quickly.

The Hokage removed a cloth that had been covering what appeared to be a bowl of  
rice porridge next to a pair of toothpicks.

"Eat." She ordered simply.

"Ma'am?" Ayame asked in confusion.

The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

After a moment Ayame nervously grabbed the pair of toothpics and started trying  
to eat the porridge.

"Have you ever considered what life would be like as a giant?" The Hokage asked  
conversationally.

"Sometimes." Ayame quietly admitted.

"You probably thought about how fun it would be to tower over everyone, to be  
stronger, faster and more powerful than anyone around you." The Hokage stated  
mildly.

Ayame nodded.

"There would be a great many other changes to your life if you were a giant."  
The Hokage continued. "Many things that you currently take for granted would be  
very difficult."

"Things like eating a bowl of rice?" Ayame guessed wryly.

"Indeed." Butter wouldn't melt in the Hokage's mouth. "How did you guess?"

Ayame scowled. "Why are you telling me this, Ma'am?" She asked.

"Because giants are real." The Hokage said simply. "You know one."

"Really? Who?" Ayame asked in surprise.

"Your cousin." The Hokage replied crisply.

"That bufoon? He's just an academy student who can't even do the Bunshin." Ayame  
disagreed with disdain.

"And yet He is a giant nonetheless." The Hokage returned firmly. "And he's not  
the first one that I've met. Perhaps if I tell you about the last one you'll  
understand."

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Hinata sat quietly on a bench watching her secret inspiration sit dejectedly on the swing set outside the academy.

They had both just failed their second runoff graduation test out of a maximum of four.

They only got two more chances and then they would both be kicked out of the academy.

Hinata shook her head and sighed.

"The elders have organized a clan tournament next week." Hinata thought to herself. "They want to start trying to see if I will be heir or Hanabi will."

She looked at her hands and blinked back tears. "If I prove to them that I'm worthy then my sister will be enslaved with the caged bird seal, but if I spare her that fate it will be inflicted on me instead." She continued her internal monologue. "I wish I knew what to do. I wish I could be brave like Naruto." Hinata heard the faint rustle of fabric and footsteps, she glanced up and found herself meeting Naruto's eye as he walked by.

He paused. "Hey." Naruto said in a subdued tone.  
"H-Hi" Hinata stuttered shyly in response.  
"You're Hinata, right?" She nodded.  
"Rough day, huh?" Naruto said glumly.

"Y-yeah." Hinata said a little more firmly.

"I was doin' fine 'til they tol' me to do tha bunshin again, can't seem to get it right." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head. "How 'bout you?" He asked idly.

Hinata blushed with embarrassment and pressed the tips of her fingers together. "I failed Taijutsu." She said shyly.

"I did good with that." Naruto said with a grin.

Hinata nodded. "I saw, you almost beat Sasuke." She said, not noticing that her stutter had faded.

Naruto frowned and thought for a moment. "Hey, I betchya we could help each other out!" He exclaimed.

"Oh, How so?" Hinata asked nervously.

"Betchya if we train together I can help ya get better at yer taijutsu and then how about you show me how to do the bunshin!" He said excitedly. "We got a few weeks off school now."

Hinata clasped her hands in her lap and looked at them for a moment. "I think that might work." she said after thinking it over.

"'Course it will!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin. "We're gonna be the best ninja ever!"

Hinata nodded and smiled softly. "Let's meet here tomorrow after lunch." She said as she got up to head home. For the first time in a long time she felt like everything would be alright.

The next afternoon Hinata met Naruto outside the academy. "Hey, Hinata!" He greeted loudly with an enthusiastic wave.

"H-Hi, Naruto." Hinata stuttered back with a shy wave of her own.

"Academy's closed, but I got a spot we can train at. Come on" Naruto said with a grin as he took Hinata's hand and quickly led her away.

Soon enough Naruto led Hinata to a clearing in the woods next to a waterfall where a stream came down the mountain.

"Here we go!" Naruto said with an excited grin. "We got our own personal training ground."

Hinata looked around in surprise, expecting someone else to have claimed such a beautiful area. "It's very nice." She said softly.

"It's cool." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head. "But we ain't here ta talk. I gotta train 'cause I'm gonna Hokage!"

Hinata smiled. "Alright, Naruto." She said softly. "At the academy they always said it was important to warm up, so I think we should run some laps around the clearing before we do anything else."

"Let's go!" Naruto responded with a grin and set off in a brisk jog.

Hinata giggled softly and ran to catch up.

After a few laps they performed some stretches, and then ran through their katas together.

"Hey, Hinata." Naruto said with a frown. "Your forms are weird."

"These are taught by my clan Naruto." Hinata replied. "It's our special style."

"Oh." Naruto said thoughtfully. "Well maybe you should do the academy stuff too." He said after a moment.

"W-why?" Hinata asked self consciously. "Was I making mistakes with the clan style?"

Naruto shrugged. "Well I dunno." He said with a grin. "I dunno your clan style, but wouldn't it be super to know two styles? That way if one didn't work on an enemy you could use the other and kick his ass!"

Hinata bit her lip for a moment and thought about it, then nodded. "Alright Naruto, I asked you to help me train so I'll do what you ask."

After that they spent about an hour going through the academy forms and occasionally correcting each other's stances and motions, Then when Hinata was getting tired she had Naruto try making a bunshin.

It came out discolored and looking ill.

Hinata frowned, Naruto had used the correct hand signs. She activated her Byakugan. "Please try again Naruto." She said in the firmest tone he had ever heard her use.

Naruto shrugged and went through the hand signs again. "Bunshin." Again the clone came out looking sick and malformed.

Hinata touched the ends of her fingers together and bit her lip as she thought for a moment.

"N-naruto." She said softly. "I think you're putting too much energy into the bunshin."

"Too Much?" Naruto said with a confused frown.

Hinata nodded. "The bunshin is an illusion, sort of a shell of chakra and light. If you put too much chakra into it I think it will pop sort of like a soap bubble with too much air inside of it."

Naruto frowned again and then nodded. "Ok." He ran through the handsigns. "Bunshin." This time the clone still looked sick and discolored but it was able to stand for a moment before it fell over.

Hinata frowned along with Naruto this time. "Naruto." She said after a moment. "Try making more than one."

"How many ya want?" Naruto wondered aloud as he scratched the back of his head.

Hinata shrugged. "Perhaps.." She paused nervously for a moment. "Perhaps as many as you can?" She asked timidly.

Naruto grinned and nodded. A few moments later there was a virtual tide of orange jumpsuits.  
The clones still didn't look quite right, and only lasted a few seconds, but they had been real, successful bunshin.

Hinata smiled. "You did it!" She exclaimed happily as she patted Naruto on the shoulder.

Naruto grinned. "Hell yeah!" He said before he got dizzy and found himself sitting on the ground.

"Naruto! are you alright?" Hinata asked.

Naruto nodded. "Just dizzy."

Hinata suddenly realized that since Naruto could summon Bunshin now he no longer needed her help.

"Oh, well congratulations Naruto." She said dejectedly as she turned to leave.

Somehow life felt just a little harder to bear knowing that she wouldn't be training with Naruto again tomorrow.

"Hey Hinata." she heard a voice call after her. She turned to see Naruto picking himself up off of the ground. "See ya here tomorrow, 'aight?" He asked simply.

Hinata smiled softly and nodded before continuing home.  
Somehow life felt just a little bit better knowing that she would be training with Naruto again tomorrow.

The next day Hinata met Naruto as agreed.  
"Hey Hinata!" Naruto greeted her with a grin. "Let's warm up and spar."

"Why should we do that, Naruto?" Hinata asked. "I don't want to fight you."

Naruto shrugged. "It'll toughen us up."

Hinata pursed her lips but nodded reluctantly.

After a few laps around the clearing and some stretches Hinata and Naruto bowed to each other and began to spar.

After a few jabs back and forth Naruto caught Hinata with a roundhouse kick.  
Hinata blocked but she didn't quite do it in time so Naruto's kick had enough power to go through her block and knock her down.

Naruto frowned and walked over. "Hey, you ok?" He asked.

"Y-yes, I'm alright." Hinata said shakily as she sat up.

Naruto kept frowning for a moment. "Hey, ain't all yer moves so far from the academy?" He asked slowly.

Hinata went very still, and then nodded.

"Thought ya said yesterday yer clan had a style." He mused aloud.

Hinata nodded again nervously.

"Why ain't ya usin' it?" Naruto asked.

"I don't want to h-hurt you." Hinata said with a hitch in her voice.

Naruto scowled. "So you think I'm too much of a wuss to stand up to some fancy clan shit? Bring it!" He said loudly.

Hinata opened her mouth to reply, but then seemed to decide differently.  
She closed her mouth, set her jaw and nodded firmly.

The next sparring match went very differently.

Hinata started by activating her Byakugan and when Naruto tried to jab at her she simply performed a juuken strike and closed a tenketsu in his arm.

This process was quickly followed by disabling his other arm as well as knocking Naruto back a few feet.

Naruto refused to give up though and jumped at Hinata, aiming a kick at her stomach.

Hinata countered by performing a Juuken strike to his chest.

Both attacks hit and both children were knocked back and fell to the ground.

After a few moments Hinata was able to sit up, and she noticed that Naruto was still laying on the ground.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

"I've done it." She thought to herself sadly. "I hurt Naruto and now he won't want to train with me."

Hinata was shaken from her musings by Naruto sitting up with a groan, and rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the ground.

Hinata's eyes went as wide as saucers when she realized that Naruto had unblocked his own tenketsu in only a few minutes.

"So that's your clan style, huh?" Naruto said wryly.

Hinata nodded shyly. She was still somewhat nervous that Naruto would be angry.

"Fuckin' A that's... Awesome!" Naruto said with a sudden grin.

"R-really?" Hinata asked in shock.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically as he got up. "Ya gotta use that shit in the academy tournaments!" He said with another grin. "I wanna be a fly on the wall when you hand Sasuke his ass."

"I don't think I could beat Sasuke." Hinata said softly.

"Then we're gonna keep training!" Naruto argued. "I wanna see ya knock his face in!"

Hinata giggled softly at the image Naruto's words conjured; She didn't seem to realize that Naruto's wide grin and cheerful attitude had rubbed off on her a little.

Naruto frowned. "Hey, Hinata." He said curiously. "Yer style's awesome an' all, but howzit work?"

Hinata frowned for a moment as she tried to figure out the best explanation to give.

"Well Naruto you know that exercise that sensei taught us at the academy? The one where you had to make a leaf stick to your forehead.?"

"Yeah, I r'member it." Naruto said with a nod.

Hinata smiled and continued. "Well my clan style sort of uses that technique, only we do it backwards so that it makes our attacks stronger and we attack vulnerable spots on our opponents bodies."

Naruto scratched his head. "That's it?"

Hinata blushed with embarrassment and touched the tips of her fingers together. "Well perhaps I didn't explain it very well-" She began only to be interrupted.

"No, you're awesome Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin. "Yer style just so cool that I thought there was more to it."

The only thing Hinata could say to that was a soft "Oh."

"Hey, thanks for the help, see ya tomorrow." Naruto departed with a grin and a wave.

Hinata hummed softly to herself on the way home.

Deep in the recesses of her heart she began to doubt the way her clan spoke about her being weak or a failure.

After all, Naruto was brave and determined, he never gave up and he always seemed to know what to do.

In short, he was the most awesome person that Hinata had met in the vast experience that her eleven years had brought her.

Naruto had looked her in the eye, smiled and told her that she was awesome too. And he had done it twice.  
For the rest of the week the two children fell into a routine.  
Hinata would arrive at the improvised training ground after lunch, usually to find that Naruto had spent most of the morning there already.

Naruto would join Hinata in her warm up and the two would run through a few forms and spar.  
Neither noticed at the time but both of their fighting styles noticeably changed.

Many of the bad habits that Naruto's academy teachers had failed to correct Hinata simply took advantage of, and Naruto quickly adapted.  
Naruto also adapted a few of the blocks, dodges and palm strikes from Hinata's Gentle Fist technique.

On the other hand Hinata learned to improvise to match an opponent who was both stronger and faster than she was; She also learned to integrate a few of the academy moves with her Juuken when it was to her advantage.

The end result for both of them was that they were slightly better at close combat and had started to develop a hint of the deadly grace that is common among truly talented ninja.

This change went unnoticed as important but subtle changes are wont to do, and many people would bitterly curse their inattention in the years to come.

The day before the Hyuuga clan tournament Hinata woke up early.

She felt much more confident in her skills than had before she started training with Naruto, but she was still nervous about the clan tournament the next day, and she wasn't sure what to do.

After breakfast she went out for a walk to try to clear her head, and spent a while wandering the village.

Soon her feet led her to the improvised training ground that she and Naruto had been using.

She was greeted by a dull thumping sound like a drummer pounding on a giant drum.  
The drummer must have still been learning because they didn't seem to have the rhythm quite right, and they kept stopping every few hits.

Hinata quietly activated her Byakugan and looked around to find the source of the noise.

Hinata saw Naruto in the trees near the edge of the clearing where they trained together.

Hinata wasn't very surprised to see him there, she had suspected that Naruto was coming early to train for most of the week.

The thing that surprised Hinata is what Naruto did next.

Naruto began charging his hand with chakra.

Thanks to her Byakugan Hinata could see how much chakra he was gathering and the sheer quantity shocked her.

It looked like Naruto had reached out and grabbed a fist full of sunlight.

Then there was a flash that was nearly blinding to Hinata's chakra sensitive eyes as Naruto used all that chakra to perform a palm strike on the tree.

Hinata blinked the spots and tears from her eyes and quickly deactivated her Byakugan.  
It seemed that she was just in time too, since just after she did she heard another dull thump as Naruto hit the tree with another chakra enhanced palm strike.

Once she was recovered Hinata made her way towards the noise of Naruto's training.

"Good morning, Naruto" she called when she got close.

"Oh, Hey Hinata." Naruto called back. "You're early." he said with a grin.

Hinata nodded pensively.

Naruto frowned, sensing something wrong with his friend.

Hinata clasped her hands nervously. "N-naruto, I won't be able to train with you tomorrow." She said.

Naruto scratched his head. "Why not?"

"W-well, the elders of my clan are making all of us spar in a clan tournament to see who is the strongest."

Naruto grinned. "That's great! Do ya get extra training for winning?"

Hinata shook her head. "N-not exactly, no." She said softly.

Naruto frowned. "Sweet prize?"

"Well I-" Hinata took a deep breath. "I think they are trying to decide if I should go into the branch house or if my sister should."

Hinata's statement simply caused Naruto to look confused. "Branch house?"

Hinata sighed. "My clan is divided into two houses." She explained. "The main house runs the clan, Everyone else has a seal placed on them and is placed in the branch house."

Naruto grinned. "So if ya win ya get special powers from this seal thing, eh?"

Hinata shook her head sadly. "N-not exactly." she explained. "The seal is called a caged bird seal, it's used to ensure that the branch house obeys the main house, and to make sure that our bloodline doesn't fall into enemy hands."

The cheerful expression melted off of Naruto's face, and Hinata looked over his shoulder and noticed that he had left perfect handprints in the tree with his palm strikes.

"Howzit do that?" Naruto asked with none of the usual cheer in his voice.

"W-well, the main house can use the seal to p-punish the branch house, and they can also use it to k-kill them and destroy their eyes if they are c-captured."

Naruto sent Hinata a harsh look. "So yer clan tortures an' kills their family?" He snapped.

Hinata blushed with embarrassment. "It's wrong but I can't stop it."

Naruto grinned at Hinata. "It's cool Hinata, You're awesome. You'll win."

Hinata suddenly found her feet very interesting. "I'm not sure I want to win." She said quietly.

"Why's that?" Naruto asked in shock.

"If I stay in the main house my sister will be moved to the branch house." She admitted. "I don't want her to get hurt."

"Hold on a tic, Main house's in charge, right?" Naruto asked slowly. Hinata nodded.

"So if ya win you'll be runnin' the clan one day?" Naruto continued.

"That's right." Hinata said softly.

Naruto's shoulders straightened and his jaw set.  
"Hinata, do your best." He said firmly.  
"That way your clan gets a badass who knows what's what rather than some asshole.  
You're the only one who believes me when I say that I'm gonna be Hokage; Even other people that like me just nod and play along, and then they grin and roll their eyes when they don't think I'm lookin' but you- you're different. You don't do that.  
So I'm gonna make ya a promise, I'm not just gonna get tougher so I can be Hokage.  
I'm gonna get tougher so I can help you protect yer sister."  
Now come on, we gotta get training."  
Naruto continued with a grin. "You've gotta tournament ta win."

For once Hinata actually grinned in return.

The next day Hinata found herself matched against the worst possible opponent: Neji.  
Neji was Hinata's cousin, and while he was only a year older than Hinata he was also considered the clan prodigy, and he was noted for beating several older and more experienced clan members in the past.

And now Hinata had to fight him.  
As Hinata's panic started to rise she remembered Naruto's voice telling her that she had to do her best so that she could protect her sister.  
Hinata took a deep breath, set her jaw and stepped up to the plain white circle that had been inlaid onto the floor of one of the clan dojos.

Hyuuga Haruki was the elder overseeing the match.  
Upon seeing Hinata's expression he shot her a speculative glance, and then verified that Neji was in position.

Neji was there, with a slight sneer upon his face. "I came here to test my skill." He said. "Instead of a challenge the main house has offered an insult."

This caused Haruki's eyebrows to rise. "Are you ready, Neji?" He asked dryly. Neji nodded.

"And you Hinata?" Haruki continued. Upon seeing her nod He simply said "Begin." And silently activated his Byakugan.

Both Hinata and Neji also activated their Byakugan, and Neji darted forward intending to end the match quickly.

He aimed a Juuken strike at Hinata's shoulder in an attempt to disable her arm.  
Hinata countered with what appeared to be a poorly executed academy block; Instead of redirecting the blow with her forearm the block seemed to come up too slowly and the move evolved into a clumsy seeming chop at his forearm.

Neji smirked in anticipation of victory until he saw Hinata's hand flare with chakra.  
He felt the impact of his strike in his shoulder, but his hand was numb and he couldn't force her tenketsu closed.

Then he saw chakra build up in Hinata's hand as it darted towards his chest, followed by a bright flash.

The next thing Neji knew he found himself laying on his back trying to blink spots out of his eyes.

"Winner: Hinata." Haruki said evenly as Hinata hurried over to make sure Neji was alright.

Neji snarled, batted Hinata away and lurched to his feet.

He turned toward her angrily only to have Haruki step in front of them.

"The match is over." Haruki said icily.

"It was just a lucky hit." Neji snapped.

"Indeed it was." Haruki replied evenly. "However, had she performed a juuken strike instead of converting her chakra into kinetic energy she would have closed another of your tenketsu." he continued as he reached over and pulled the collar of Neji's shirt down.

Neji looked down and realized that there was a perfect palm shaped bruise forming on his chest.

"You are a prodigy, Neji." Haruki said. "But most of your opponents will not be as merciful as Hinata. Lucky strikes happen on missions, and you must learn to guard against them."

The world seemed to freeze for Neji when he realized that the bruise on his chest was forming directly over the tenketsu that powered his heart.  
He couldn't believe that this had happened; How could the girl that destiny had decreed to be weak and a failure best him like this?

"Hinata held back from dealing any permanent damage to you; That was proper since harming you would be of no benefit to the clan." Haruki continued, seemingly unaware of Neji's shock.  
"However she struck a blow that could have easily killed you after demonstrating her ability to follow through on such a blow, therefore I have declared her the winner. This is also proper, since lucky strike or no she would have ended you had you been a true enemy."

Haruki released Neji's shirt. "You are dismissed Neji." He said evenly.

Neji nodded slowly without seeming to hear him and walked from the room.

Haruki turned to leave as well, but he paused in the doorway and glanced over his shoulder at Hinata.

"Well done, child." He said with a small smile before continuing on his way.

Hinata walked slowly out of the dojo into the courtyard and paused when she found most of the clan present and nearly all of them looking at her.

She knew it was clan tradition to gather in the courtyard and use the bloodline to watch the matches through the dojo wall, but usually during such gatherings people would talk to and even look at one another since their nearly perfect panoramic vision would allow them to do so and still watch the fight.

It was rare to have everyone looking in the same direction, especially to do so silently, and yet they were Hinata realized nervously.

And they were doing it to stare at her.

"Shame on you!" One of the retired Kunoichi spat at her indignantly. "The Juuken form is perfect! Deviations from it are neither necessary nor will they be tolerated."

"Oh be shaddup ya ol' hag." An old man rebutted testily. "We're a shinobi clan. Shinobi are supposed to adapt and be unpredictable! Unconventional forms and tactics are unacceptable only if they fail."

That seemed to set off a deluge of conversation as nearly the entire clan tried to give their opinion at once.

"We should make that move a clan secret. I'm still seeing spots." A younger woman said as she rubbed her eyes.

"I think that getting knocked on his conceited little ass is good for Neji. Builds character." An old man cackled.

"We should build character in the younger generation on a regular basis." His old partner agreed with a grin.

"Neji's the best ninja ever, she cheated!" One of the children about to enter the academy shouted.

"Kid we're ninja, it's only cheatin' if the other guy's the one doin' it." A man wearing a Chuunen vest rebutted.

"What the hell were they teaching kids at that academy these days anyhow?" One of the retirees asked no one in particular.

"That attack would have been better if she had imbued it with wind chakra rather than regular chakra." A recently retired Jounin said.

"That's insane! Fire chakra is clearly a better choice." One of the Genin rebutted testily.

After a few more moments Hiashi's voice cut over the Chatter. "Silence."

He waited a moment for conversation to die down and then began speaking.

"I have consulted with my advisors and we have reached a consensus."

He gestured at the assembled elders standing nearby and continued.  
"The decision is thus; Tradition and propriety are integral pillars of our clan, however the single thing that is least becoming a Hyuuga is defeat. As such the forms and tactics Hinata displayed during her spar are acceptable due to the fact that they brought victory. That is all."

"I'm surprised the elders took that stance, I thought for sure they were going to give her a hard time for improper form." Hinata heard someone say quietly.

"You should remember that they were all active service shinobi in their day too." Another voice pointed out. "They may be old and stuffy now, but most of them were Jounin or ANBU when they were younger."

As she went to bed Hinata the talk was still continuing in clumps.  
She couldn't believe it, she had beat Neji, the person that everyone called the clan prodigy.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day Hinata woke early.  
She was still excited about her victory over Neji the previous day and wanted to share the news with Naruto, so she rushed to the clearing.

She found the place silent and empty, and after a quick search she settled down to wait.

Naruto arrived a few minutes later. "Hey, Hinata." He said with his customary grin and wave. "How'dit go?"

"I won!" Hinata burst out excitedly as she clasped her hands and bounced in place. "They matched me against Neji, He's the clan prodigy who is only a year older than me but can beat several of the older clan members and I beat him!"

"I bet the looks on their faces were great." Naruto said with a laugh.

Hinata giggled and nodded. "They were."

"See? I toldjya you're awesome." Naruto told her with a superior look.

Hinata just blushed and shook her head.

"Well, yer here early. How 'bout some trainin'?" Naruto asked after a moment of silence.

After a few laps to warm up and a few stretches the pair ran through their forms and began to spar.

The two bowed to each other and quickly closed the gap.  
Hinata aimed a jab at a Tenketsu in Naruto's left shoulder which he blocked; But she was able to hit one in his forearm instead.

Naruto jabbed back with his right hand and Hinata used the modified academy block that had worked so well on Neji the day before.

She was able to disable Naruto's right hand but he quickly hopped out of range of her counterstrike and managed to clip her in the side with a kick, which knocked her off balance.

While Hinata recovered her balance Naruto slowly worked the fingers in his left hand.  
Hinata's eyes widened in shock as she realized that Naruto's tenketsu were already beginning to work themselves open again. 'Is he becoming resistant to the Juuken?" She wondered to herself.

"So, This is where you learned." A voice interrupted coldly.

"Who the hell'r you?" Naruto asked bluntly.

Hinata realized that she had missed someone approaching because she had been too focused on her match with Naruto. "Neji." She gasped in surprise.

"The matches yesterday were to judge your own skill, Hinata." Neji said cooly. "Not to allow you to borrow the skill of another in order to cheat destiny."

Hinata suddenly felt fear stab through her like a knife.

"Whaddaya mean, destiny?" Naruto snapped.

"It is the destiny of the weak to be ruled by the strong. No one can change their destiny." Neji said with a smirk as he watched Hinata seem to fold in on herself at his words. "Hinata is destined to be a weak failure, and she cannot change that."

"Take that back, asshole!" Naruto snarled. "She's better'n you'll ever be."

"I have spoken the truth." Neji said stiffly.

"Fine, then. I'll make ya." Naruto said as he began stalking forward.

"Hinata, if you come to the compound quietly I'll not harm this... creature." Neji sneered.

But Hinata didn't get a chance to respond.  
With a cry of fury Naruto launch himself forward as he channeled chakra to his fist in anticipation of a strike.

Neji smirked, activated his Byakugan and simply blocked the tenketsu that Naruto was using to channel chakra for his attack.

The results were instant: Both opponents were blown backwards with a loud WHUMP that Hinata felt in her chest.

Neji was able to tuck and roll out of it in the relatively smooth grassy clearing, but Naruto had been airborn when the impact took place and was launched on a low ballistic trajectory that ended with him hitting a tree back first with a resounding CRACK.

Hinata ran over to where Naruto lay on the ground to find the back of his head bloody.

"Naruto, are you OK?" She called, but didn't get a response. She quickly tore the hem of her jacket to use as a makeshift bandage and used it to staunch the bleeding.

"Please be alright Naruto." Hinata said softly as she blinked tears from her eyes. He groaned in response and Hinata smiled as she checked him for other injuries. She noticed a shadow fall over his prone form and then everything went black.

As he carried Hinata toward the clan compound Neji tried desperately to calm himself down and come up with a series of events that would keep him from getting punished.

Naruto had attacked him, that was true enough Neji thought.  
Neji was no fool, he knew the boy was a pariah for some reason, and he had a number of unusual chakra pathways in his abdomen.  
Neji had also heard whispers that corruption could somehow spread from the boy and that idea served his purposes nicely.  
He was certain that Hinata had not seen him come up behind her and knock her out with a Juuken strike to the back of her head, so he could easily say that she fainted.

Neji smirked to himself, confidence would be key to making this work, and confidence was not a problem for him.

The gates to the clan compound came into sight and Neji prepared to spin his story to the two Chuunen guarding it when elder Haruki stepped through the gate.

Neji felt a cold stab of fear which he carefully kept off of his face when he noticed the telltale bulge of veins around the elder's eyes indicating active Byakugan use.

Elder Haruki stared at the scene before him for a moment before turning to one of the gate guards.

"Run ahead and warn the medics, tell them that the heiress is unconscious and requires immediate attention. " He said firmly.

Haruki turned back to Neji. "You help me carry her to the infirmary." He continued as he gently lifted Hinata from Neji's shoulder and carefully cradled her head and shoulders. "Get her legs, careful now."

Neji complied and soon Hinata was safely in the hands of the clan medics.

Haruki and Neji stood off to the side watching the medics swarm around Hinata for a moment before Haruki touched Neji on the shoulder. "Come with me." He said simply and quickly led Neji towards Hiashi's office suite.

But instead of going to the office itself Neji was surprised to find himself led to one of Hiashi's private conference rooms.

His surprise turned to shock when he realized that the council of clan elders were there - all of them.

Neji suddenly felt very nervous knowing that of the twelve ninja in the room all of them were A rank or higher - except for him; and as elder Haruki took his seat and left Neji standing with nowhere to sit like an errant child he realized that every one of them was looking at him.

Neji idly noted that aside from Hiashi everyone had the caged bird seal.  
Intellectually he had known that only one Hyuuga per generation was left unsealed of course but it had never occurred to him that the entire council would be members of the branch family and he had never seen them all in one place before.

"What happened?" Hiashi asked, cutting off Neji's musings.

"I came across Hinata in a cleaning in the forest. She appeared to be under attack by the demon brat." Neji said smoothly. "I stepped in the way and he attacked me instead."

"I see." Hiashi said flatly. "Though I do wonder where you heard that term. How did Hinata come to be unconscious?"

"The-" Neji cut himself off just in time. "Uzumaki boy directed some sort of chakra attack at me, I blocked the tenketsu he was using to channel the attack, he was knocked away in the backlash and became injured when he impacted a tree. Hinata attempted to provide first aid but fainted at the sight of blood so I rushed her here for immediate medical attention."

Elder Haruki's head twitched oddly and Hiashi raised an eyebrow.

"Are you quite certain that is what happened, Neji?" Hiashi asked dryly.

"Yes sir." Neji said as firmly as he could. His instincts were screaming that something was wrong, but what?

Just then a runner quietly entered the room, silently deposited a small folder in front of Hiashi and quickly exited the room.

As Hiashi quickly opened the folder Neil's world seemed to freeze as he realized something that sent his heart down to his toes and up to his throat at the same time; Elder Haruki's head hadn't twitched, it had subtly - almost imperceptibly - been shaken.

Hiashi snapped the folder shut. "You said that Hinata lost consciousness when she was attempting to provide first aid to the Uzumaki boy?" He asked.

"That's right." Neji said nervously.

"What sort of injuries had he suffered?" Hiashi asked quickly.

"He had suffered a blow to the head when he impacted a tree; He appeared to be unconscious and was bleeding heavily." Neji responded.

"So," Hiashi snapped as he held up the folder so that Neji could see that it was a medical report. "Not only did you fail to render aid to a citizen of Konoha during an emergency, you actively interfered with someone who was attempting to render aid and you did so by closing a tenketsu in my daughter's brain." By the time he had finished Hiashi's voice was filled with with such cold fury that Neji was surprised that frost was not forming on the table between them.

Neji opened his mouth to respond but Hiashi interrupted. "Be silent." He snarled.

"You will not speak." He continued. "Instead you will hurry to the infirmary and tell the medics that there is another emergency. Take two medics to where you left Uzumaki to die and pray very, very hard that I am able to save you from our Hokage; Because the 'Demon Brat' as you call him happens to be his protege, and anything I could do to you would seem like a warm spring breeze in comparison to the horrors you would endure were he to decide to make the depths of his displeasure known to you."

Silence stretched through the room for a moment until eventually one of the elders coughed. Neji turned to her and found himself looking at a woman who looked like she was a kind old grandmother.  
Except at the moment the entire council was radiating killing intent that made them look more like they were statues carved of marble and crystallized death than actual people.

"Your commander just gave you an order, genin." The old lady said flatly. "Why are you still here?"

Neji turned and walked brusquely from the room.  
"Hurry means run, you worthless little shit!" The voice of another elder cracked after him like a whip a moment later, and so Neji ran.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Naruto awoke in the clearing.  
He sat up and looked around frantically and could find no trace of either Hinata or Neji; He seemed to be alone.

Naruto glanced up at the sun before grabbing the back of his head and groaning as the bright light seemed to sear a hole straight to the back of his skull.

He thought the sun had moved a bit but he couldn't be sure.  
Naruto scrunched his eyes closed and shook his head to clear the throbbing.  
When he pulled his hand away he felt something sticky on it, he looked down to see partially dried blood.

With another groan Naruto heaved himself to his feet and trudged in the direction of the Hokage tower.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was having a good morning.  
He puffed contentedly on his pipe as he reviewed intelligence reports and drafted team assignments for his ANBU operatIves as appropriate.  
Hiruzen allowed others to handle mission assignments for the general pool with only the occasional spot check but he always handled the ANBU assignments himself.

Unfortunately Hiruzen's peaceful mood suffered a sudden death when his ward stumbled in covered in blood.

"Gramps, I need help." Naruto said quietly as he held his aching head.

In the ANBU ready room next to the hokage's office the team that was currently on standby started double checking their gear.  
They were all familiar with the rapidly suppressed spike of killing intent that had just radiated from the office next door; it didn't happen often but when it did instructions usually followed.

Hiruzen quickly set his paperwork aside and got up to check on Naruto. "Naruto are you alright? What happened?" He asked quickly as he motioned to his assistant, who quietly sent for a medic.

"I was trainin' with Hinata and some guy took her." Naruto said as he sat gingerly.

"Hyuuga Hinata?" Hiruzen asked intently.

Naruto nodded and then winced when that made his head hurt worse.

"Did he wear a headband?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yeah." Naruto rasped right before he clutched his stomach, heaved once and proceeded to vomit down the front of Hiruzen's robes along with part of his desk and a good portion of the floor besides.

Naruto gasped and caught his breath for a few moments before he continued. "He wore a leaf symbol. Dark hair and weird eyes like hers."

Hiruzen frowned. "Did you see him take her?"

"Nah." Naruto said. "It's all blank after I hit him."

"Hound." Hiruzen called.  
A hound masked ANBU quickly appeared in the doorway. "Yes, Sir?"

"I have received a reliable report of the Hyuuga heiress being involved in an assault and possible kidnapping." Hiruzen said with a gesture at Naruto. "Please produce her for me, and find out the details if you can."

"In what condition, sir?" Hound responded cooly..

"Happy if possible, though alive will do." Hiruzen said grimly.

"Understood, was that all sir?" Hound asked.

"Dismissed." Hiruzen replied easily.

"I'll be right back, Naruto." Hiruzen said gently, and then stepped out of his office.

"You summoned a medic?" Hiruzen asked his secretary.

"Ten minutes ago when I saw Uzumaki walk through the door covered in blood." She agreed, holding up her message log for Hiruzen's inspection.

"Long enough for someone to bleed out if it were more serious." Hiruzen mused. "Perhaps we should address that."

"I'll send Anko over to have a look at their response procedures." She said cheerfully.

"You're feeling vindictive." Hiruzen observed casually.

"Not at all, sir." The secretary said sweetly. "I simply feel that Anko is the best choice to convey the needed sense of urgency."

Hiruzen chuckled. "She may be a crazy bitch, but she's our crazy bitch." he said with a grin.

"That's why we love her, sir." The secretary said with a matching grin.

Just then two med-nins hurried in. "Who's hurt?"

Hiruzen gestured into his office mildly.

The next few minutes were best characterized by diagnostic jutsu, bandages, medical jargon and vomit.

The end result was that Naruto had slight skull fracture and a moderate concussion, but he would be alright.

He was to check in at the hospital twice a day for the next three days and if he missed an appointment and someone had to come find him Gramps would be very unhappy.

The Hokage's secretary privately though that this was very amusing since she knew that for most other people merely calling the man Gramps could be bad for one's long term health and making him very unhappy was an excellent way to have an ANBU squad wake you up at three in the morning - with explosive tags.

Just after the medics left a small dog walked in carrying message tube in its mouth.

Hiruzen quickly took the tube from the dog and scanned its contents as the dog dissolved into a puff of black chakra smoke.

"Good news, Naruto." He said with a smile. "Your friend is just fine. She's being cared for at her clan infirmary."

"Gramps, we gotta get her outta there!" Naruto pleaded worredly.

"And why do you say that, Naruto?" Hiruzen asked mildly as he picked up his pipe.

"She said they were gonna put some kinda seal on her an make her some sort of slave!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I see." Hiruzen said with a frown.

He puffed silently on his pipe for a few moments. "Unfortunately I don't think I can stop them, Naruto." He reluctantly admitted, and then held up his hand to stop Naruto from interrupting. "When the Hyuuga clan joined the village they signed a treaty with us that among other things allowed them to retain the right to apply the caged bird seal to any clan members they wish to; If I interfere I will break that treaty and it could spark a civil war within the village." He explained gently.

"So if you help Hinata ev'ryone else gets hurt." Naruto said glumly.

"That's right." Hiruzen said with a nod.

"It's OK Gramps." Naruto said saidly. "I get it, you gotta think about everybody."

With that he got up and walked dejectedly out of the office.

Hiruzen sighed as he watched Naruto go.

"There are days when I hate this hat." He muttered to himself once he was alone.

It wouldn't be too difficult, Hiruzen mused to himself.

He could simply walk into the Hyuuga compound and cut through them like a harvester through wheat until he got to Hinata and then simply walk out with her.

God help him, if it weren't for this hat he might just do it too; all to make Naruto smile at him again.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Neji returned to the clan compound after a fruitless search for the injured Uzumaki brat to find Hiashi waiting for him next to a four foot long section of debarked log.

"I see you have failed. Hiashi said dryly. He turned to the medics. "Dismissed." Hiashi said cooly before fixing Neji with a cold stare as he tried to slip away.

"Not you." Hiashi snapped and then tossed something in the dust at Neji's feet. Neji looked down to see a mallet and a carving chisel.

"Yesterday I finally saw a flash of greatness in my daughter; greatness I have long hoped to see her acheive." Hiashi said conversationally. "Today she is in the infirmary after being attacked from behind."

Hiashi gestured at the tools on the ground.

"You will put those in your pouch." He said flatly as he tossed a coil of rope next to them.

"And then you will strap this log to your back." Hiashi continued, seemingly oblivious to the dawning look of shock in Neji's face. "Once you have secured it you will locate your sensei; When you find him you will tell him that the fires of your youth have died and beg for his help rekindling them. If he asks why explain what you have done to him, follow his instructions without complaint."

Hiashi suddenly looked grim. "When he is done with you the real task begins. You will carry the log to Konoha's memorial stone, and you will copy the names there onto the log. When you are done you will carry the log back here, and we will discuss the proper forms of address for the orphans those names left behind."

The look on Neji's face morphed from shock to horror.

He suddenly realized why he hadn't ever heard any adult from his clan - or any clan - refer to Naruto in a derogatory fashion.

Orphans of ninja killed in the line of duty were highly esteemed among the clans; After all, they made a much more difficult sacrifice than merely dying to protect the village.

Neji suspected that many ninja wondered if their own children might someday share the same plight, and he suspected that affected the treatment of such orphans as well.

If Neji had publicly insulted one - worse, if Neji had smashed one's head into a tree and left him bleeding in the woods - than Neji was honestly surprised at Hiashi's restraint.

"I see you begin to understand." Hiashi interrupted his musing. "Excellent, but you should get moving; we will have much to discuss when you return. "


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto trudged towards his apartment sadly.

He was tired, sore, dizzy, and covered in a mixture of blood and puke, which made for a foul mood on its own and he couldn't get the look on Hinata's face while that guy was talking shit earlier out of his head.

He dejectedly kicked a rock as he passed.

"Sorry, Hinata." He grumbled to himself. "Looks like even the Hokage can't protect ya."

Naruto stopped suddenly, and rubbed the back of his head absently before he winced as he brushed the bandages on the back of his head.

"Wait, hold on a sec, dumbass." He said to himself, ignoring the strange looks that he was getting by standing and talking to himself in the middle of the street. "I ain't just gonna be Hokage, I promised I'd be more than that." He rambled to himself. "So damn it I _am _gonna be more than that!"

Decision made Naruto turned and started stalking in the direction of the Hyuuga compound.

Naruto made excellent time on his trip.

It may have been due to the scent of blood, sweat and vomit baked in the hot sun wafting from Naruto that caused the crowds to clear from his path.

Alternatively it could have been the near-murderous glare due to his still pounding head, or even the low level killing intent he was leaking; He'd had a hell of a day.

Regardless of the reason, the crowds seemed to melt away from Naruto and allowed him to pass unhindered.

Soon the gates of the Hyuuga compound came into view.

Naruto stalked up to the guards.

"Lemme in, I wanna see Hinata." He said gruffly.

The two chuunin guarding the gate glanced at each other.

"And who are you sir?" The guard on the left asked.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I wanna see Hinata." Naruto said patiently.

"And what's your business here?" The guard on the right asked.

"I wanna see Hinata." Naruto explained slowly as if he were speaking to a small child.

"Alright sir, what can we do for you?" The guard on the left asked pleasantly.

"I wanna see Hinata!" Naruto snapped.

"I'm sorry, sir. Miss Hyuuga is not receiving guests at this time." The guard on the right informed him.

At this point Naruto's face began to turn an alarming shade of purple and his hands started making odd twitching motions.

The guard on the left sighed. "Look, kid." He said. "We aren't allowed to let anyone in to see Miss Hyuuga right now, She's in the infirmary." He pulled a coin out of his pocket and tossed it at Naruto's feet.

"Go get yourself cleaned up and get some rest. We may be able to let you in tomorrow."

Naruto took a deep breath and his face returned to a more normal color.  
After a moment he turned and stalked away.  
He paused after a few steps.

"That's three cups of instant ramen damnit." He muttered before turning around, grabbing the coin and scurrying off.

The guards looked at each other.

"You know, it's wrong and we really shouldn't do it." The guard on the left began.

"But that shit never gets old." The guard on the right finished before the two began to laugh.

Once Naruto was out of sight of the guards he quickly ducked down a side street and then cut through back alleys until he had worked his way back to the walls of the Hyuuga compound.

He quickly looked around and spotted a large crate shipping standing in the alleyway that ran along the wall.

The crate was about three feet tall and the wall next to him was about ten feet tall.

Naruto grinned to himself as he climbed atop the crate. Perfect.

He couldn't actually see over the wall, it was too tall for that, but he could see a few things on the roofline of the various Hyuuga buildings.

Naruto picked the furthest object he could see over the wall, it looked like an antenna of some kind, and quickly ran through some handseals before calling out his technique."Kawirimi."

Naruto grinned as he felt the technique work for a moment, and then stifled a shout as he felt himself fall.

Fortunately there was someone's bed there to break his fall, Naruto mused to himself as he looked at the open sky and wondered just what sort of moron has a huge hole in the roof over their bed.

And why the hell was it so dusty in here?

Fortunately the bed seemed to be empty too, and it was a nice bed. Naruto mused. He'd have to see about coming back later to steal it later.

Naruto heaved himself out of bed and crept out of the room in search of the infirmary.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Daisuke was was humming to himself happily as he worked.

He was new in town and had recently opened his own weapon shop.

He grinned to himself.

He owned a weapon shop! In a ninja village!

That actually led to his current situation.

He may have been a little over enthusiastic with his supply orders and now he was trying to re-arrange his storeroom to make the last crate of shuriken fit.

Daisuke was sure it would be ok in the back alley for a few minutes but he didn't want to leave it there overnight.

Daisuke had just gotten a spot in the storeroom cleared for the crate when he heard an ungodly crash outside.

"Sounds like someone's dropping houses in the alley." Daisuke muttered to himself as he turned and headed outside to see what was going on.

He stared in shock at the scene that waited for him.

There, leaning against his crate of shuriken was a perfectly round section of roofing, complete with an antenna sticking from the top and a (now broken) light fixture on the bottom.

"What the hell?" He muttered to himself as he scratched his head. "I didn't mean that literally."

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Hyuuga Atsuko was having a quiet day.

She wasn't a ninja; She had been born to the branch house and washed out of the academy about ten years ago.

Oh, she still kept up with her Juuken forms, she was a Hyuuga after all, but she had never been an actual ninja.

So instead she did odd jobs for the clan.

It wasn't glamorous but it paid, it helped the clan, and it had a much lower risk of death than being a ninja, so it suited Atsuko just fine.

Currently her odd job involved being a maid for the main house.

This helped the clan by eliminating a potential security leak in a high risk area, gave her something productive to do that paid decently and, Atsuko suspected, gave Hiashi something nice to look at.

Not that Hiashi needed her to be in the house - or even the compound - if he wanted to look at her. Atsuko mused as she moved her supply cart toward Hiashi's bedroom. The man's skill with the Byakugan allowed him to watch his daughter's sparring matches at the academy from his office.

Just as Atsuko reached for the door it slid open on its own and the most wretched looking urchin stumbled out wearing what had once been an orange jumpsuit that was now a collection of rags that was covered in blood vomit and, from the smell, sweat.

The two froze and stared at each other for a moment before the boy coughed a bit in the cloud of dust billowing out after him.

"Uh Hey, where's the infirmary?" The boy asked, having shaken himself out of his stupor.

Atsuko simply pointed down the hall in shock.  
"Outside, second building on the left." She said mechanically.

"Heh, thanks." The boy shot her a grin before trotting down the hall and leaving Atsuko to stare at Hiashi's bedroom in horror.

Why the hell was there a hole in the ceiling right over the bed?

"This will take forever to clean up." Atsuko groaned to herself as she got started.

Naruto ran across a few other clan members on his way to the infirmary but he kept his head up, his eyes ahead and kept moving.

Several of the clan members members noticed Naruto but no one stopped him. Why should they? He was heading for the infirmary and if anyone belonged there Naruto did.

Naruto stumbled into the Infirmary and managed to sneak by the nurse on duty.

There weren't many beds in the infirmary, It was really just a small medical clinic for handling small issues and making sure patients were stable in an emergency so that they could be transferred to the main hospital.

Hyuuga Kohaku waited quietly in the corner near the heiress' bed.

After the foolish assault on the child Kohaku had quietly conferred with the other members of the Elder's council and they had decided that attempting to allow the child some measure of freedom by merely tracking her with their Byakugan had been a mistake.

It seemed a more active role in her safety was needed for the time being.

And so Kohaku sat quietly in the corner with her chakra signature suppressed, waiting for the heiress to stir.

It was funny how even civilians depended on their chakra senses to find others. Kohaku mused to herself.

It was unlikely that even a Chuunin would notice her walking into a room as she was now, and even if they did all they would see would be a kindly old woman sitting in the corner; Not the woman who had spent two decades in ANBU and had over a thousand confirmed kills in close combat.

On the other hand, if Kohaku were to stop suppressing her chakra signature civilians would find her presence intimidating, perhaps even frightening without her even projecting any killing intent at all.

Kohaku smiled for a moment as the remembered the look on Neji's face when she and the rest of the council had stopped suppressing their collective chakra signatures earlier that day.

The life of a shinobi was hard, She mused to herself. It was best to find amusement wherever possible.

Her musings were interrupted when Uzumaki Naruto of all people walked into the room.

Based upon his appearance it was apparant that he was having a very bad day.

He didn't seem to notice Kohaku.

She could have killed him ten times over by now; Ah to be young again.

She watched as Uzumaki approached her charge and was about to intervene when she heard a soft footstep in the hallway and Hiashi stepped into the doorway.

Kohaku met Hiashi's eye and raised an eyebrow.

Hiashi shook his head almost imperceptably and Kohaku bowed her head slightly.

She would let Hiashi handle this.

Naruto approached Hinata's bed and lifted her arm in apparent preparation for a fireman's carry.

"Please don't do that." Hiashi said calmly.

Naruto whirled. "Who the hell'r you?" He asked waspishly.

"Hinata's father." Hiashi responded evenly.  
"The medics just performed the procedure to reopen the tenketsu in her brain and she's in a very delicate state right now, moving her could hurt her." He explained.

"Damnit" Naruto said as he balled his fists. "I ain't gonna let ya make her a slave!" He snarled as he dropped into a wobbly academy stance.

"Oh? Why would I want to do that?" Hiashi asked sharply.

"Hinata said ya got some kinda seal ya put on yer family to make 'em do what ya want an' Neji said some shit about her bein' weak and how she's gonna havta serve ev'ryone else an' that's bullshit so I ain't gonna let it happen!" Naruto rambled angrily.

"You cannot help her, boy." Hiashi said coldly. "You are injured, weak and alone. If I choose to seal her you cannot stop me, but I am in a good mood so I will allow you to leave unharmed. Go home."

On hearing those words a gleam appeared in Naruto's eye and he looked Hiashi in the eye.  
"Hey asshole."He said slowly and clearly."Go fuck a goat."

Silence stretched through the room before Hiashi burst out laughing.

Kohaku had to bite her lips to prevent herself from joining Hiashi in his merriment.

The simple audacity required for an eleven year old child to break into a clan compound, attempt to abduct the heiress and then insult the clan head in such a way was simply staggering.

The loyalty required to attempt it in the first place was heartwarming Kohaku decided as she noticed that Hiashi had actually laughed until tears came to his eyes.

After a moment Hiashi calmed himself and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Excellent." Hiashi finally said when he was able to speak again. "My daughter will need friends like you when she takes my place as head of the clan."

Naruto looked thoroughly confused by this point. "Eh?" He said articulately.

Hiashi's lips twitched. "I suspect you will be most helpful during treaty negotiations." He said with a quiver in his voice.

"I'm still not gonna let you hurt Hinata." Naruto said decisively.

"Oh sit down before you fall over, boy." Hiashi said with a sigh. "I'm not going to hurt my daughter."

"Oh." Naruto said with relief. "Ya promise?" He asked with childlike desperation.

"You have my word." Hiashi said seriously.

"Good." Naruto mumbled as he collapsed.

Kohaku darted out of her chair and caught Naruto before he hit the ground and Hiashi whirled and shouted for a medic.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

"Mr. Hyuuga." The Hokage's secretary greeted Hiashi smoothly.

"Is the Hokage in?" Hiashi asked the girl politely.

"He is, may I inquire as to the subject?" She replied.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Hiashi said simply.

"I see, I think he has time to see you." She said after a moment.

"Thank you." Hiashi said politely as he head over and knocked on the office door.

"Enter." Hiruzen called from within.

"Hiashi, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked with a smile as he set aside the folder he was working on and waved Hiashi to his seat.

"Honored Hokage, I thought you'd like to know that Uzumaki Naruto is currently in my clan infirmary." Hiashi said bluntly as he took the indicated seat.

Hiruzen paused in filling his pipe and raised an eyebrow. "Oh? how did that happen?" He asked.

"Apparently the boy had gotten some rather skewed information about capabilities and use of the caged bird seal." Hiashi explained. "He had also been given the impression that I planned to apply the seal to my daughter, Hinata."

"Yes, he had told me much the same thing." Hiruzen agreed with a nod as he lit his pipe.

"Well, apparently he objected to that course of action." Hiashi said with a smile.

"Oh dear." Hiruzen said as he puffed at the pipe. "What did he do."

"Oh, not much." Hiashi said airliy. "He just infiltrated the clan compound, broke into the infirmary and tried to extract my daughter."

Hiruzen rubbed his eyes. "Are you going to press charges?" He asked tiredly.

"He was acting on incorrect information, but he was doing so in an effort to protect my daughter." Hiashi said. "Incidentally protecting my daughter is a goal that I also share, so no. I don't believe I shall."

"Thank you." Hiruzen said with a sigh of relief.

"Currently my daughter is a resident of our infirmary due to an assault by one of my clan members." Hiashi continued. "The Uzumaki boy witnessed the assault. Given that both the attacker and the victim are members of my clan I would like to handle the incident as an internal clan matter."

Hiruzen puffed on his pipe for a moment. "As long as it gets handled I see no problem with that." He finally said.

"The attacker is Hyuuga Neji." Hiashi explained with a cold smile. "The last time I saw him I had strapped a three hundred pound log to his back and instructed him to find his sensei and request assistance rekindling the flames of his youth."

"He made you angry." Hiruzen observed.

"He hit my little girl." Hiashi said flatly.

"I like it." Hiruzen said with a grin. "Very well, I'll leave the matter between Neji and Hinata in your capable, if somewhat sadistic, hands."

"Thank you." Hiashi said gratefully, and then shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Unfortunately I feel that there is another matter I must bring to your attention, honored Hokage." Hiashi continued after a moment.

"What is that?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

"It seems that there was some sort of altercation between Naruto and Neji." Hiashi explained. "I do not know who escalated the situation to violence, but I do know that Naruto was injured in the incident and that Hinata was attempting to provide first aid when she was attacked."

"That, I cannot overlook." Hiruzen said slowly.

Hiashi nodded. "I know, that's partially why I'm reporting it."

Hiruzen sighed again, then puffed at his pipe for a few moments. "Neji is both a promising ninja and a very young one." He said after a few moments.

Hiashi nodded.

"I am reluctant to employ the more severe punishments available in the case of a ninja for failing to render aid, however there must be some official punishment." Hiruzen continued thoughtfully before his eyes lit up. "I have it."

"You are familiar with my edict regarding the fate of the Kyuubi." Hiruzen prompted.

"I am." Hiashi said in confusion.

"It will not change." Hiruzen explained quickly. "However I am aware that it is possible to take several reasonable - as well as a few unreasonable - precautions to secure a document and still fail to prevent access by a member of your clan."

"You wish Neji to fully understand the potential impact of his actions." Hiashi said with a nod.

"Indeed." Hiruzen agreed. "Failure to render aid is unacceptable. This time everything managed to work out through luck, next time we might lose vital intelligence."

"Understood." Hiashi said after a moment's contemplation. "Neji will learn of the full potential impact of his actions without violating the letter of your edict."

"As far as Neji's official punishment I believe he shall be required to run a minimum of 6 D ranked missions aiding Naruto with payment forfeited to Naruto." Hiruzen mused aloud.

"Now who's sadistic, old man?" Hiashi with a laugh.

Hiruzen chuckled for a moment before the mirth melted from his face. "Regardless of who started it, Neji bashed the head of Minato's orphan son into a tree and left him bleeding in the woods over what amounts to a childhood squabble."

Hiashi considered that for a moment. "I admire your restraint, honored Hokage." He admitted.

Hiruzen smile. "I will, of course, have a private chat with Naruto about the possible ramifications of allowing himself to be drawn into an altercation with a shinobi."

"Thank you, I believe we have addressed all of my concerns." Hiashi said as he rose from his seat. "Thank you for your time, honored Hokage."

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

It was a few hours after sunset when Neji finally stumbled back through the gates.

To his dismay he found Kohaku waiting for him.

A few days ago Neji had found her quaint, now he found her terrifying.

"You have returned. " Kohaku observed neutrally. "You may put that in the courtyard." She said, indicating the newly carved log and waited patiently for Neji to comply.

"Follow me." She said simply once Neji relieved himself of his burden.

Then she led him to Hiashi's office and indicated that he should sit in one of the guest chairs.

Neji noticed a bowl of gyoza and a thermos of tea on the corner of the desk near where he sat and a small stack of folders in front of what he presumed to be Hiashi's seat.

"Eat." Kohaku instructed crisply just as Neji's stomach growled.

Neji hurriedly began to eat.

"I think you have potential so I'm going to give you some advice." Kohaku said after a moment.

Neji stopped eating and looked at her.

She smiled coldly. "Three things; First, a ninja must always look beneath the surface of the current situation. Second, information is vital and should be gathered at every opportunity. Third, when in doubt look to the example of the fourth hokage." She shot a quick glance at a picture on Hiashi's desk before continuing.

"Hiashi will be along in a few minutes. wait here." She instructed before leaving.

Neji took a few more bites thoughtfully before he carefully reached over and snagged the top folder, he quickly began to read between bites:

"The origins of the nine bijuu are unknown at this time.

However they are sentient chakra life forms that appear to be incapable of reproduction and have no regard for other life forms.

It is possible to disperse them temporarily however the chakra of each beast is highly unique and will quickly begin to coalesce after such an event.

The only proven containment method for a bijuu is to seal it within a fuuinjutsu array which must then be attached to a living host.

Systemic rejection is common in older hosts, which can result in death, insanity, psychological regression and catastrophic failure of the Fuuinjutsu array; thus it is recommended that the selected host be as young as possible.

A synopsis of the known sealing arrays is included however it should be noted that all known arrays contain one common component: they are all dependant upon the will of the host to prevent the bijuu from manifesting.

It should also be noted that in the case of severe injury a Bijuu may be capable of assuming control of the host body for an indeterminate length of time; If the host dies the fuuinjutsu array will begin to degrade quickly and will release the Bijuu in a matter of minutes or hours depending on the condition of the array prior to death.

It is due to this fact that Bijuu hosts are commonly called jinchuuriki, since it is only by the hosts allowing their own bodies and minds to be used as prisons for the Bijuu that their comrades are able to live free from the fear of attack."

After that was a summary of the death tolls from the various Bijuu attacks, and Neji had to push aside a very faint memory of the sky turning red and the earth shaking as alarms shrieked in the background.

Neji quickly paged through the rest of the report but he didn't know enough about sealing for the information to be useful, so he set that folder aside and grabbed the next one.

It was a medical report on the potential complications that could arise from an attack like the one he had used on Hinata were it to be executed imperfectly.

Neji sighed at the thought of Hinata never waking up over a stupid spar, and set that folder aside to grab the last one.

Neji felt a hint of pride knowing that for all of the potential risks he _had_executed the attack perfectly and Hinata would be fine in a few days.

Oh, Neji knew the attack itself was a mistake but at least he had made his mistake with skill and finesse, right?

Neji carefully stacked the folders back where he got them and thought for a few moments.

Neji was under no illusions - this had been set up deliberately so that he could find this information; but why?

He understood why Hiashi wanted him to find the medical files, but he could have done that in person.

What did the information on jinchuuriki have to do with all of this? Neji wondered to himself.

There must be something about the information on jinchuuriki that required Hiashi to maintain plausible deniability, Neji decided.

His eyes drifted to the only other object on the desk: the picture.

Neji casually picked the picture up and then his eyebrows rose in shock.

When had Naruto and he gotten a picture taken together? He wondered.

And who were the white haired guy and the pretty brown-eyed girl?

Neji looked closer and realized that it wasn't Naruto, the boy in the picture was older than Naruto, the jawline was slightly different and the whisker marks were missing.

Neji closely inspected the faces in the photo and nearly dropped it when he realized that he was looking at Hiashi's Genin team picture.

"Look beneath the surface." Neji mumbled to himself. "Byakugan."

There words beneath the picture, Neji began to read for a moment before his mind froze.

He could read and understand individual words, and even string a few terms together like "Nine tailed beast Kyuubi," "Sealed inside the infant Uzumaki Naruto," "S-ranked secret." and "punishable by death."

Even so Neji's mind somehow seemed incapable of filing away what he was seeing and allowing him to move on.

Neji realized that he was on the floor shaking uncontrollably.

He tried to catch is breath and get control of himself but he couldn't manage to do anything but make himself breathe faster.

Fog seemed to close in around Neji and he couldn't hear anything but his heart hammering in his ears.

The cold, clinical words of the report detailing the number of people dead swam in his mind, only to be replaced by the words from the slip of paper hidden behind Hiashi's picture: "Sealed within Uzumaki Naruto."

Those words in turn were replaced with more cold, clinical words from the report: "In the case of severe injury a Bijuu may be capable of assuming control of the host body for an indeterminate length of time; If the host dies the fuuinjutsu array will begin to degrade quickly and will release the Bijuu in a matter of minutes or hours..."

Which led back to the numbers of people dead and cities destroyed, and in the background that faint memory from Neji's childhood where the sky turned red, the sirens shrieked and the earth rumbled played over and over again.

Eventually he realized that there was something warm on his shoulder, and some sort of warm droning sound around him; What was it?

Soon the words and images faded a bit and Neji realized that he was curled up on the floor and that Hiashi was there, kneeling next to him.

"-on boy, take a deep breath." He was saying in a calm voice.

Neji complied.

"That's it, good job, now let it out." Hiashi continued.

Neji did that, too.

"Alright, now take another." Hiashi said with a smile, and continued to simply talk to the boy.

After a couple of minutes Hiashi gently started gathering up the files and stacking them on the desk.

"Do you understand what you found?" Hiashi asked gently.

"N-naruto." Neji said with a hitch in his voice. "Is he really-" Hiashi gently placed a finger over Neji's lips.

"Don't say it." He said in a voice that was somehow soft and stern at the same time. "Remember the edict."

Neji bit his lip.

He remembered.

S-ranked secret.  
Punishable by death.

He nodded.

"Do you understand why you were allowed to find this information?" Hiashi asked gently.

Neji nodded. "So I could understand what I could have done."

"That's right." Hiashi agreed.

"Failure to render aid in an emergency is a dangerous thing, even if the person appears to be just an unimportant civilian." He continued in a low tone. "What appears to be a civilian injured in an accident could be an intelligence operative for the village being assassinated before your very eyes."

"I understand." Neji said brokenly, and Hiashi relented.

Information had made his point much more thoroughly than pain ever could.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning Neji went to meet the rest of Team 9 at the village gates just before the sky began to get light.

Neji was tired since he hadn't technically been to bed yet, he had stayed up talking with Hiashi instead.

Neji felt spent, as if his emotions had been wrung out like a sponge.

He also felt a sense of grim vindication knowing that the family, friends, and known associates of the men who had carried out the operation ultimately responsible for his father's death had died in tragic accidents that could not be traced back to the village, his clan or the Hokage.

Killing off the pets and poisoning the houseplants of that rather extensive list had been a rather nice touch. Neji mused with a hint of respect both for his clan leader and for his Hokage as he quietly met the rest of his team.

Gai sensei had a quiet talk with one of the Chuunin in the guardhouse before they were waved inside and he led them up a ladder to the top of the wall.

Soon they were huddled together in the cutting pre-dawn wind and Gai sensei grinned at them. "Today, my students we shall celebrate our youth with a leisurely run around our beautiful village!" He said as he gave them a cheerful thumbs up.

Neji bore this news stoically while his female teammate, an orphaned girl named Tenten who had no known family name, groaned and the other boy on his team, a boy with bowl cut hair and bushy eyebrows by the name of Rock Lee cheered.

"Your enthusiasm is truly inspirational, my students! Come, let us run!" Gai said with amother grin, and so they ran.

While the pace Gai sensei set was hard for them, and would have been outright impossible for a civilian, Neji had seen ninja in his clan run much faster so he realized that to Gai sensei this was indeed a nice leisurely morning run.

When Neji noticed the sky turning red he panicked for a moment, fearing that Naruto had finally lost his endless struggle to restrain the Kyuubi, but when the earth failed to tremble and no one screamed he realized it was the sun preparing to rise.

Gai sensei was right, Neji mused as he ran along the top of Konoha's walls watching the sun slowly paint the world in hues of scarlet and gold.  
Their village really was beautiful.

Perhaps beneath all of Gai sensei's loud, brash enthusiasm was a man who knew more about life than Neji had originally thought.

After all, so far he had been right about a lot of things;  
It was good to be alive, the village was beautiful, and it was good to run in the cool morning breeze.

After their nearly nine kilometer run team 9 had a makeshift taijutsu tournament where each of the three genin sparred with each of the others.

Neji won, but he felt a surge of surprised respect for Tenten nearly took his head off with a kunai when he tried to close in to knock her out.

After practice team 9 went to the administration tower to get their assignment for the day.

They found the Hokage seated next to the Chuunin at the assignment desk puffing away at his pipe as he watched the proceedings carefully.

Apparantly he was performing a spot check on the mission assignment desk today.

"Honored Hokage, it is wonderful to see you this fine morning!" Gai greeted with a cheerful grin and a wave.

"Good morning to you also, Gai." Hiruzen said with a small smile at the man's antics.

"Good morning sir, D rank?" The Chuunin behind the desk asked professionally.

"Yes, please." Gai said. "It would not do to give my students a harder mission before they are ready."

"Very well sir, here you are." The Chuunin replied as he handed Gai a scroll and a key.

"One of Konoha's orphans was recently injured in an assault." The chuunin explained blandly as Neji went very still, realizing the Hokage's eyes were on him. "The medics have currently confined him to the hospital. He lives alone and is expected to be released this afternoon and confined to light physical duty. You are to proceed to his apartment and ensure that it is in order before he is released to ensure that he is not placed under any undue strain."

"I see." Gai said gravely. "And who is the client?"

"Uzumaki Naruto." The Chuunin said casually.

Neji swallowed.

"Hey, I know him!" Tenten exclaimed. "He's kinda loud and likes to play jokes on people but he's just a kid. What kind of jackass would wanna hurt him?" She mused aloud.

"I find myself wondering much the same thing." Hiruzen agreed casually, his dark eyes glittering as he sat quietly in his chair puffing at his pipe and seemed to take in every twitch Neji made.

Neji thought that snakes must watch birds in much the same fashion when the birds mistook the snakes for tree branches and tried to land.

Gai flipped the scroll into the air and then caught it with a grin before flashing Hiruzen a grin and a thumbs up.

"Have no fear, Honored Hokage!" He exclaimed "Team 9 will not fail! Come students, this is our most important mission yet." He said as he led them out of the mission assignment office.

Team 9 made good time to Naruto's apartment, which was located in a rundown apartment building in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Konoha.

Gai unlocked the door to Naruto's apartment and led the team inside.

The place was reasonably clean for an area maintained by an eleven year old boy but the furniture was universally patched, rickety and worn.

Off to the left the kitchen table was old and clearly cracked down the center; one of the legs was also painted white and ornately carved while the rest of the table had simply been sanded, smooth and waxed, leaving the natural woodgrain visible.

No two legs on the stool next to the table matched in either color or carving and they were held together by bundles of braided ninja wire instead of crossbars.

In the living room the couch sagged in the middle and was missing both legs on one side making one end sharply sloped and the other nearly level.

Under the window on the other side of the couch there was what appeared to actually be one of the old academy desks that had been thrown away a few years before.

Half of the desk seemed to serve as a workbench with several worn tools on it, from where he was standing Neji could make out a few grinding stones, a couple of files, a mallet and a crate of what appeared to be a mix of damaged shuriken and Kunai.

The other end of the desk seemed to serve as Naruto's writing desk.

Perched on the windowsill above the workbench was a rather sad looking cactus.

In the corner there were a few bookcases that appeared to be held up by the scrolls, kunai and assorted random stuff on them almost as much as they held up said objects.

Spread across it all was a thin layer of clothing, scrolls, weapons, and notes that seemed to be cover nearly every surface, including the floor.

Neji was able to see sliver of the bedroom and that seemed to be much the same as the rest of the apartment.

"Sheesh, what a dump." Tenten mused aloud. "Even I've got a nicer place than this."

"Tenten, this is our client's home." Gai admonished with a frown.

"You should respect it. His situation in life is not of his own choosing. Now come, we have work to do." He said as he began gathering clothes from the floor.

The rest of the team quickly joined in.

After a few minutes Neji sighed.  
"This is not right." He said quietly as he worked.

Gai paused. "You believe such a task is unworthy of your attention?" He asked.

Neji shook his head. "That is not the issue, sensei."

"Then what is?" Gai asked.

"There is a name on the memorial stone, Uzumaki Kushina." Neji said, recalling the names he had copied the day before. "Is Naruto not her son?"

"He is." Gai said gravely as he resumed work.

"Then Konoha dishonors her and itself by letting Naruto live this way." Neji decided aloud.

"A most youthful conclusion, my student." Gai said as he flashed Neji a grin. "That is why we are here. We will not allow young master Uzumaki to live in such a manner!"

"I will not allow you to take all of the honor by cleaning more than me, Neji!" Lee suddenly exclaimed. "I will do more work than you and if you beat me I shall run twice around Konoha!"

Neji raised an eyebrow. Had Lee just challenged him?

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Hiashi jerked awake when he heard something flying through the air towards his head.

He was a Jounin, one of the elite and thanks to years of training, finely honed reflexes, and sadistic teammates hewas able to hear an object flying towards his head in his sleep and react despite the fact that he hadn't gotten to bed until nearly dawn after being awake for over 24 hours.

In the time it would take a civilian to blink Hiashi went from sleeping peacefully to wide eyed wakefulness to rolling out of bed and crouching in a defensive stance with his back to a wall.

Hiashi spent the next few moments blinking at the pigeon turd that was laying on his pillow right where his head had been resting not long before.

Then he looked up, deactivated the Byakugan, rubbed his eyes and looked again.

"Why the hell is there a hole in my ceiling?" He muttered as he went in search of a cup of coffee.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Naruto grumbled to himself as he jogged home.

He'd told the damn medics he felt fine when he woke up this morning; he'd just been tired yesterday.

But apparently medics would only listen when you said you were hurt, so they had kept Naruto for almost an extra half of a day for 'observation' before finally letting him go the hell home.

He took a quick look around the sparkling apartment and ran towards the Hokage's office as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Gramps, Gramps!" Naruto shouted as he bolted into Hiruzen's office.

"What's wrong?" Hiruzen asked in alarm.

"There's a bigger pervert than you in the village!" Naruto exclaimed in apparent horror.

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows.  
"Really?" He asked in surprise before muttering to himself. "That would be quite an accomplishment."

"Uh-huh!" Naruto exclaimed in wide-eyed earnest. "When I got backta my apartment I foun out somebody broke in while I was gone! All my stuff was moved around an' on the shelfs an'-" Naruto glanced around furtively before continuing in a whisper. "All my dirty underwears was _gone _gramps!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen was recognized throughout the elemental nations as an S ranked ninja.

That meant that any mission involving direct conflict with Hiruzen was instantly regarded as a suicide mission for lower ranked nin.

Oh, Hiruzen was as mortal as the next man, he simply had more latent talent and had backed that talent up with more - and higher quality - training than any but a handful of other nin in the world.

Hiruzen could theoretically be overwhelmed by superior numbers, but the losses required for an enemy to do so without bringing another S ranked nin to bear would simply be staggering; Recent estimates by rival villages ran in excess of one hundred Jounin class ninja needed to guarantee a kill on Hiruzen with estimated losses surpassing sixty percent.

Many analysts considered the latest numbers to be optimistic.

That was why invasions between ninja villages were so rare; sending rank and file ninja against a kage in his village was akin to sending a herd of sheep to attack a bear in his den.

Hiruzen called upon all of his vast training and experience to keep a straight face.

It worked, for about two seconds, and then Hiruzen's control cracked and he began to laugh.

Naruto blushed.

"It ain't _funny_gramps!" He said with a scowl.

"Very well, Naruto." Hiruzen said as gravely as he could manage between chuckles. "Take me to your apartment and I shall attempt to get to the bottom of this."

"Yer gonna investigate this yerrself?" Naruto said in surprise.

"I take my perversity very seriously, Naruto." Hiruzen explained, suddenly grim. "The allegation that someone has surpassed me is not to be taken lightly."

"Gather a list of all Kunoichi in the village between the ages of fifteen and twenty one who don't do laundry often." Hiruzen told his Secretary as he and Naruto stepped out of his office.

"Alright, I'll add my name to the list." She said with a suggestive wink. "what do you need it for?"

"You'll see." Hiruzen said with a leer as he and Naruto exited the room and headed to Naruto's apartment.

Naruto quickly led Hiruzen to his apartment and let him in.

Hiruzen looked around seemingly dispassionately, but he was actually impressed with the efficiency of team 9.

In a few short hours they had ruthlessly assaulted the barely contained chaos that had been Naruto's apartment and turned it into a tidy, well organized home. He mused as he strolled through the apartment.

The place was still a little run down and shabby, but not nearly as bad as it had been when he had last visited Hiruzen thought to himself as he inspected the apartment under the guise of investigating the 'break in.'

He mentally noted that Naruto was running low on food, and that he seemed to have stocked only off the shelf boxed meals and instant soups and noodles before moving on with his 'investigation.'

Hiruzen casually opened the top drawer of Naruto's decrepit, old - and freshly scrubbed Hiruzen noted with satisfaction - dresser and found it stuffed to capacity with neatly folded undergarments.

"Naruto." Hiruzen said evenly. "Are these the missing items?"  
Naruto gaped. "Dude, Gramps this is messed up!" He exclaimed. "Somebody broke into my house and did my laundry. Who the hell does that?"

Hiruzen struggled for a moment to keep a straight face, managed it.

"I shall investigate of course, though the evidence would suggest that they did not mean you any harm." Hiruzen said thoughtfully. "Though perhaps it would be best if I had one of my teams check on you from time to time. We will have to have them perform other actions with you to distract any observers, and your current orders from the medics will suffice."

Hiruzen said with a grin as he spun his tale."I noticed that you're a little low on groceries, so I think I'll have a team join you under the cover that they are helping because you are under medical orders not to strain yourself."

"But gramps, I'm fine!" Naruto objected.

"I'm aware of that, Naruto." Hiruzen said soothingly. "You're a tough kid, but no one else knows that you're fine. Sometimes a ninja must use misinformation and misdirection against his enemies."

"Oh, I get it, Gramps!" Naruto said with a grin. "If ya tell everyone I'm hurt an' I need help an' then send a ninja team ta help me anybody who wants ta hurt me is gonna think I'm weak an' they won't be expectin' a fight."

Hiruzen nodded. "That's right, Naruto, always remeber that misinformation and misdirection are the most powerful weapons in a Ninja's aresenal; information or the lack thereof have killed more ninja than any single form of direct attack. This is likely the most valuable lesson I will ever teach you." Hiruzen said.

'And if I can pay you back for a few of the pranks you have pulled at the same time that's quite a bonus.' He added silently to himself as he watched Naruto nod seriously.

"In the meantime," Hiruzen continued."I recommend you relax and enjoy the remainder of your day."

"Relax?" Naruto said in disbelief. "Look around Gramps, my place is trashed!"  
"Indeed." Hiruzen said dryly as he headed for the door. "You are quite resourceful Naruto, I'm sure you'll manage somehow."

Team 9 arrived at Naruto's apartment the next morning to find the place a mess and Naruto swearing up a storm.

The contents of most of the shelves in Naruto's apartment seemed to have been emptied, along with all of the drawers in the kitchen, his bathroom and his bedroom.

Naruto stood in the center of the chaos literally pulling his own hair in frustration as he ranted to himself.

"-Can't find Gama anywhere!" He said as the team stepped quietly through the slightly open front door.

"Oh, Hey." Naruto said with a distracted wave. "You guys must be the team Gramps said he would send. We can go just as soon as I can find my wallet, Gama."

"I will help you find your wallet, Honored Uzumaki!" Lee exclaimed before he started quickly looking through the objects that Naruto had apparently strewn about in his search.

Neji shoved aside the stab of fear that he felt at seeing Naruto in such a state and tried to help as well.

Tenten seemed to pause and think for a moment before walking over to the writing desk half of Naruto's work bench, opened the drawer on that side and rummaged around a bit.

After a moment she held up a frog-shaped coin purse. "Is this it?" She asked.

"Gama!" Naruto exclaimed as he snatched the purse away from her and hugged it as if it were a pet. "Who would stuff you in a drawer, Gama?"

"Well it seemed like a sensible place for a wallet to me." Tenten said a little defensively.

"Thanks for finding him!" Naruto said brightly.

"I just wish I'd been here sooner." Tenten said as she eyed the once again messy apartment.

"Oh don't worry about all that." Naruto said easily. "Somebody came by yesterday an' trashed tha place, I'll fix it later."

"Oh my god!" Tenten exclaimed. "Who would do such a thing?"

"Such an act is indeed most unyouthful." Gai said gravely.

"I'll help you clean up!" Lee exclaimed.

"A most youthful offer, Lee." Gai said as he flashed the boy a grin and a thumbs up. "But we are on a mission and the mission must come before personal matters."

"Then let's go!" Lee exclaimed before all but dragging Naruto out the door.

Seeing his teammate's pseudo assault on Naruto sent Neji's stress levels surging and on the way to the village bazaar Neji found himself contemplating bringing Naruto to the Hyuuga clan compound where he could ensure that Naruto lived life in a nice, secure home surrounded by efficient, attractive, and above all polite servants who would see to Naruto's every need.

Konoha's Bazaar was a sprawling affair that took up nearly a quarter of the village.

The streets in the bazaar area were much wider than the rest of the village, which allowed tents and portable booths to be set up back to back in a row down the center of the street facing both directions.

The result was that the wider streets became much narrower, and up and down these smaller tracks travelling vendors pushed their carts methodically, selling their wares both to individuals and to vendors in stalls and shops.

Some of these travelling vendors moved from town to town in caravans, others were eithertradesmen who could do their work on the move or they had deals with a local tradesmen to sell products for them.

A few were simply scavengers who were trying to sell whatever they could buy cheaply elsewhere, usually from a thief, or find on their own and they often tried to scam the unwary with false claims about their wares.

A few such scoundrels operated in the smaller tents and booths, but it was very uncommon to have an actual shop operate in such a way; the tactics employed by these vendors made being able to fade into the crowd and disappear a desirable option to have, especially in a shinobi village.

Doing business at an actual shop was usually more expensive than the smaller booths and street vendors.

Shops themselves were expensive to buy and maintain, and since they were a bit more insulated from the rest of the Bazaar they often were exclusively stocked by special deals from various tradesmen or farmers in the area, so their prices tended to be fixed.

On the other hand, the smaller vendors tended to be willing to haggle a bit in order to get a sale; some money with lower profits was better than losing a customer and getting nothing after all.

In short if you were more worried about finding what you wanted consistently, if always getting good quality was your goal, or if you were just in a hurry you went to the shops.

If you were willing to try your luck you went to the open air booths and street vendors.

Naruto led team 9 quickly into the throng at the bazaar.

The sheer variation in people's reactions to Naruto's presence surprised Neji.  
Most sent glares at the boy, and Neji recognized the looks on their faces as one he had worn himself as he looked at Hinata not long ago; These people blamed Naruto for the deaths of their loved ones in the Kyuubi attack.

Others seemed to either ignore Naruto or simply walk the other way when they saw him coming and a few actually greeted the boy warmly.

Perhaps things weren't as bad for Naruto as he had thought Neji mused just as something came whistling from the tents on the left and bounced off of Naruto's head and skittered to a stop by Neji's foot.

Neji glanced down and saw a rock the size of his thumb. He glanced over to Naruto and saw a small stream of blood starting to well from above his ear.

"Get outta here, brat!" One of the fruit vendors snarled as he stooped to pick up another stone. "We don't serve demons here."

A haze seemed to settle around Neji as all of the pent up pain, fear, anger and stress of the past few days suddenly welled up within him.

Neji felt his left hand close around something warm and soft accompanied by a soft buzzing sound like a bee in a flower on a warm summer day.  
Neji squeezed; it felt right to squeeze somehow.  
Then Neji felt a jarring sensation in his right shoulder, the buzzing was louder now, and somehow it had morphed into a loud groaning like a tree just before falling to the ground; something was familiar about that sound.  
Neji felt another jarring in his shoulder along with a sharp pain in his right hand.

"Neji!" He heard Gai sensei call from his right and behind him. When had Gai sensei moved?  
Neji looked over his shoulder towards where he had heard his sensei's voice and froze when he saw his hand.

It was curled into a tight fist and held back near his shoulder.  
Why was his fist covered in blood? Neji idly wondered. And why was there a tooth sticking out of it?

Wait, why was his hand curled into a fist in the first place? Neji asked himself as his fist seemed to snap forward of it's own accord.

Neji watched in fascination as his fist smashed into the ruined face of the vendor that had attacked Naruto.

That explained the odd sensations in his right arm, Neji mused. The vendor seemed a little blue though.

Wait, his Sensei had called him. Neji looked back over his shoulder. "Yes, sensei?" he asked politely.

"Enough." Gai said sternly. "Release him."

Neji looked back at the vendor and realized why he was blue.

The warm soft thing Neji was squeezing was the man's throat.

Neji released the man and watched curiously as the man collapsed to the ground gasping for air.

Neji giggled softly. The man looked like a fish that Neji had caught once in survival class.

Neji felt another stab of pain from his hand and looked back to the man's tooth sticking from his hand.

"You can have this back." Neji said to the man as he dug the tooth out of his hand.

"I don't need it anymore." He continued with another giggle as he dropped the tooth on the man's trembling body.

Author's note: Special thanks to all of the people at the CaerAzkaban who have been helping with this story. You guys are great.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto stared in shock at Neji.

It had never occurred to him that anyone would react violently to someone trying to hurt him.

Sure, gramps would get upset, but gramps had never hit anyone in front of Naruto.

Of course Naruto wasn't aware of the horrors that Hiruzen had visited on the people that upset him when Naruto wasn't around but that's a story for another time.

A moment later an older genin team on a routine patrol arrived with their chuunin squad leader and proceeded to secure the scene.

The Chuunin commander and Gai quietly stepped off to the side and had a quiet conversation.

Soon another squad arrived and medics were called in to examine Naruto, Neji and the fruit vendor.

Soon both the medics and the enforcement squads started asking questions.

"Hey, what's your name, son?"  
"And where do you live?"  
"There's blood on the side of your head, but no cut, what happened?"  
"So the guy over there hit you with a rock and then went after the fruit vendor? No, the fruit vendor hit you and then the other guy creamed him?"  
"You sure you got hit by a rock?"  
"How many fingers am I holding up?"  
"Is this the rock that hit you?"  
"So that's your blood on it?"

Soon everything seemed to melt into a bit of a blur during which the fruit vendor was carted away to the hospital and Neji said that he would see his clan medics, to which the medics responded that he should go immediately.

And then, almost as suddenly as the storm of questions began it was over and Naruto found himself standing alone away from the crowds behind a cordon that the responding patrols had set up.

Naruto wasn't alone for long however, since Gai approached after a few moments.

"I offer my humblest apologies for the most unyouthful interruption of your shopping, master Uzumaki." Gai said gravely. "If you wish it we shall return to the tower and have another team sent."

Naruto gaped.

"Did I do somethin' wrong?" He asked after a moment.

"No, master Uzumaki." Gai said in surprise.

"Well neither did you an' neither did Neji!" Naruto said with a fierce grin. "Now let's go, we gotta get finished!"

Gai grinned in return and flashed Naruto a thumbs up.

It seemed that some sort of signal passed through the rest of team 9, since they all started making their way towards Naruto and Gai.

"Students, while on a mission unexpected circumstances may arise." Gai said once they all arrived. "As long as the mission remains viable you must persevere and wield the fires of your youth to complete the mission!"

"Sensei, our youthful mission is to procure groceries for honorable Uzumaki, is it not?" Lee mused as he eyed the fruit vendor's baskets.

"Lee, that guy was an asshole but we aren't stealing from him!" Tenten exclaimed indignantly.

"Of course not!" Lee said in shock."Such an act would be unyouthful! I was going to propose that we leave a fair sum as payment for the goods."

"A most ingenious proposal, Lee! The flames of your youth burn brightly." Gai exclaimed.

"Gai sensei!" Lee exclaimed as he rushed to embrace his master.

Naruto turned from the embracing duo to see Neji dumping a basket of fruit into an already bulging sack as Tenten dropped a third small coin into the till.

"Hey, I thought you wanted to give a fair price!" Naruto said, scandalized.

"I am." Tenten said breezily.

Naruto gave her a skeptical look.

"Well, the vendor's not here, so his fruit is unattended and much of it will likely be stolen before he returns; It's hot out so a lot of it will likely be bad in another two or three days if it's left here, and he probably won't be back in that time." Tenten rambled aloud as she ticked points off on her fingers.  
"Oh, and I'm pretty sure he's going to get closed down soon, this place is trashed." She said with a sweeping gesture at the stall."I mean look at this place, one of the tables is broken, the fruit that was on it is lying on the ground and half of the stock is bruised, crushed, or has blood on it; that can't be sanitary."

"I see." Naruto said flatly.

"Good!" Tenten said brightly. "Then you understand how generous I'm being. By the way you owe me 65 ryo for the fruit."

"How much fruit did you take?" Naruto asked as he eyed the bag.

"Only half of it."Tenten said easily. "Like I said, the rest was bruised, crushed and covered in blood."

Naruto shrugged and handed over a 100 ryo bill. "Keep the change."

"Thanks!" Tenten said with a grin as she flicked a coin to Neji. "There's your cut of the tip."

Fruit acquired Team 9 set about acquiring Naruto a list of groceries that he didn't usually buy and set about telling him exactly why he should be eating things like the fresh mango from the fruit vendor.

Naruto was also shocked at the prices they were able to get; it seemed that rumors of Neji's encounter with the vendor earlier had circulated quickly throughout the bazaar and the result was that few people wanted to push their luck haggling with Team 9.

It seemed, Naruto mused, that having someone who was rumored to be psychotic do your grocery shopping had it's perks.

"Thanks for the help shopping." Naruto said with a happy grin as he left the Bazaar in the company of team 9 and walked towards his apartment.

"Thank you for your generosity, master Uzumaki." Gai said gravely.

"Eh?" Naruto said articulately as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, ya mean the tips? well ya earned 'em!" He continued excitedly. "Even with the tips I'm still spendin' less on food than I usually do and I'm gettin' alot more."

Naruto frowned after a moment as the team took a left turn to head into the residential district. "Thing is, I ain't sure where I'm gonna put it all."

"Well, you could put what you want to use in the kitchen and seal the rest." Tenten suggested helpfully.

"Won't it go bad?" Naruto said in confusion.

"Depends on the seal." She said with a shrug. "The good ones will keep food good."

"I don't think I have any good ones." Naruto said with a frown as he scratched the back of his head. "I only got 3 and my kunai got rusty when it was in there."  
"Then the stasis seal on your scroll is definitely flawed." Neji said quietly.

"Guess that means it ain't good for food, huh?" Naruto said wryly.

"Certainly not, master Uzumaki." Gai said as he glanced at lee, who was struggling under a large bundle of parcels and packages.

"Let us deliver the groceries to your residence and then we shall arrange a solution." He said.

"Alright." Naruto said with a shrug. "It ain't far now anyhow."

Soon they arrived at the apartment and Naruto let everyone in.

Team 9 set about quickly arranging the groceries in Naruto's kitchen.

When they were done the table was covered in packages of food, as were the counters and a good section of the floor.

"Listen closely, students." Gai spoke up as he surveyed the scene. "You have done well, but our task is not yet complete."

"Lee, Tenten." He said with a sweeping gesture. "You will stay here with the client and assist with organizing things here. I want them to be in working order when I return."

"Yes, Gai sensei!" The two chorused in unison.

Then Gai turned to Neji.  
"Neji, due to your injured hand you currently suffer limited mobility and will be of reduced efficiency here, so you will accompany me and we will acquire food grade storage scrolls."

"Yes, Gai sensei." Neji said politely.

"Excellent, then let us be on our way!" He said as he led Neji out of the apartment.

Naruto, Tenten and Lee looked at each other, shrugged and started cleaning up the apartment.

"Geez, how did the place get to be such a mess?" Tenten asked as they worked.

"I couldn't find gama!" Naruto said a little defensively.

"You were quite youthful in your search." Lee observed.

"No kiddin'." Tenten agreed wryly. "I mean we just cleaned this place up yesterday."

Naruto froze.  
"Whaddaya mean ya cleaned it up yesterday?" He demanded.

Tenten shrugged.

"Yesterday, our most youthful mission was to come here and clean your apartment while you were in the hospital." Lee said with a sparkling grin.

"Wha- Bu-" Naruto stuttered.

"Gramps said somebody broke in an' messed with my underwears!" He exclaimed.

"I guess in a way we did." Tenten mused. "But he paid us to do it."

At this Naruto burst out laughing.

"That's a good prank." He said after a few moments. "I'm gonna hafta do that when I'm Hokage!"

"It was very amusing." Lee agreed.

"Come on guys, we've gotta get to work." Tenten chided. "Sensei will be back soon."

Gai was pleased when he returned to find Naruto's apartment cleaned and well organized again.

He quickly showed Naruto how to operate the seals and helped seal away the excess groceries.

"Well done, students." Gai said as he flashed them a thumbs up. "You are dismissed until tomorrow morning. Neji, I shall accompany you to meet with your clan medics; I need to know the condition of your hand."

He turned to Naruto. "Master Uzumaki, it has been an honor working with you. I hope our mission has been completed to your satisfaction."

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, you guys did awesome." He said a little nervously. "Hey, I wanna see Hinata, can I come with you?"

Gai looked at Neji.

"That is your decision Neji, it is your home."

"I believe it would be acceptable for miss Hinata to receive a visit from a concerned classmate." Neji said after a moment of consideration.

"Then let us be on our way." Gai said as he ushered them outside.  
Once the trio arrived at the Hyuuga compound they were quickly ushered inside and Neji led them to the infirmary where the local nurse quickly started looking over Neji's hand as Gai looked on.

Naruto slipped out of the room and down the hall to Hinata's room.

He was surprised to find the room dark, and when he ventured inside he found it empty.

Naruto wandered back out of the room and found one of the nurses eyeing him.

"Can I help you?" She asked in apparent amusement.

Naruto chuckled nervously and scratched his head.

"I'm lookin' for Hinata." He said a little nervously.

"She's not here." The nurse said with a shrug.

"What happened?" Naruto asked with some concern.

The nurse patted him on the shoulder.

"Hey, take it easy." She said with a smile. "We sent her home, she's fine."

"Oh." Naruto said a little lamely. "Uh, where's she live?"

"Why don't you wait here and I'll see if we can send someone to let her know that you're here." The nurse offered after a moment of thought.

"Alright." Naruto said with a shrug. "But I don't wanna be no trouble."

"Oh, it's no trouble!" The nurse said warmly. 'At least, it's a lot less trouble than letting you run around secure parts of the compound unsupervised.' she added silently.

Naruto sat in the waiting room and fidgeted for a few moments and then got up and started pacing.

When Hinata arrived a few minutes later he had just finished folding a paper shuriken out of inserts from one of the magazines in the waiting room and was tossing it at random objects throughout the room and cackling to himself whenever he hit his target.

Specifically, Naruto had aimed the shuriken at the life sized poster of a humans organs that hung on the inside of the waiting room door, and Hinata discovered that he had been throwing the shuriken because she opened the door and found it flying straight for her at eye level.

Hinata had just enough time to let out a startled squeak before Kohaku's hand shot over Hinata's shoulder and snatched the paper shuriken from the air.

Naruto grinned and laughed nervously.

"Oh, hey Hinata." He said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Hello Naruto." Hinata said with a small smile.

"So, ya feelin' better?" He asked awkwardly after a moment.

"Much." Hinata said with a nod. "Once I woke up yesterday they sent me home."

"That's good." Naruto said with relief. "When can ya start trainin' again?"

"Well..." Hinata said slowly as she touched the tips of her index fingers together nervously. "I'm not sure I can."

"What!" Naruto exclaimed in horror. "Why not?"

"Well, after what happened the clan elders have decided to keep a much closer eye on me." Hinata said as she stole a glance at Kohaku. "I don't think I'll be allowed to go out on my own anymore."

"Nonsense, child." Kohaku said with a frown. "The facilities here are quite extensive; you can easily train here."

Hinata suddenly seemed to find her feet very interesting.

"But- Naruto..." She said softly.

Kohaku's expression softened and she gently raised Hinata's chin to face her.

"You are the heiress of the main Hyuuga house." Kohaku said softly. "If you say that your friend is welcome here very few will see fit to argue."

"Thank you, Kohaku." Hinata said with a shy smile.

She turned to Naruto and bit her lip. "C-come with me, Naruto." She said with a faint blush. "I can show you our training grounds."

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin.

Naruto's eyes widened as Hinata led him to one of the clan Dojos.

"Ya mean we can train here whenever we want?" He asked in awe.

Kohaku shrugged. "It all belongs to the clan and Hinata's father is the head of the clan." She said neutrally as she watched Hinata flush crimson. "If he doesn't object I see no reason why you couldn't."

Naruto grinned widely. "Well then let's go!"

Hinata seemed to consider things for a moment, and then she nodded firmly.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Maito Gai was standing in the Hyuuga clan infirmary listening to an update from one of the clan doctors give him an update on the condition of his student.

One of the Hyuuga clan doctors calmly stood looking at Gai and discussing Neji's condition as she periodically paused to call out instructions to the nurse who was treating the boy.

Were it not for the telltale bulging of veins around the eyes of both the doctor and the nurse Gai would have thought that the woman was simply calling out instructions without paying attention.

Then, Gai noticed an odd phenomenon; both women started flinching periodically.

More curiously still, they were flinching in near perfect unison.

"Pardon me, but is something wrong?" Gai asked with a frown.

"Not really." The doctor said with another flinch. "It just seems that the Uzumaki boy is using some kind of chakra burst technique, in his training with miss Hinata."

The doctor flinched again and shook her head. "It's a bit like looking straight at a lightning release technique every time it goes off, and he's using it repeatedly."

"I understand." Gai said with a grin. "A most youthful method of training. So Neji will be able to resume his normal duties tomorrow?"

The doctor nodded. "He should take it easy on his hand for a few days but it shouldn't affect his ability to complete D ranked missions."

"Thank you doctor." Gai said respectfully. "I shall be on my way then."

The doctor nodded and then flinched again.

Gai stepped out of the infirmary and found that with the exception of a few people with specific jobs to do all of the Hyuuga clan members in sight seemed to be standing transfixed as they stared at one of the training buildings nearby.

And every one of them flinched in unison every few seconds.

"How can she take flashes like that an' not react?" Gai heard one of the older Hyuuga ask another.

"React, hell she just used one of his attacks as an opportunity to close a tenketsu in his elbow." The companion rebutted.

"It's not that special." One of the younger clan members said airily. "I've seen more intense discharges.

"So've I, kid." The old Hyuuga shot back with a grin.

"From Jounin an' Chuunin. Not from academy students." The old man shook his head."It ain't that it's a big discharge though, kid." He said with a gesture at the dojo. "Just _look_ at 'em. I don't care if it's big or flashy, that's just flat pretty."

"We're shinobi, we aren't supposed to be pretty we're supposed to get the job done."

The old man raised an eyebrow at the younger nin.

"I suppose you know best, kid." He said with a placating gesture and a shake of his head.

"Master Uzumaki's training must be youthful indeed to command such a response." Gai said to himself.

As Gai stood silently he started hearing a dull thwump sound that seemed to coincide with the synchronised flinch of the Hyuuga clan.

It was the sort of sound that's half sound, half dull impact like the beat of a large drum or the crack of nearby thunder.

That was enough to tip the scales of Gai's curiosity and send him walking towards the dojo.

As he approached he found Hiashi standing just outside, looking in along with a cluster of the clan elders.

Hiashi glanced over at Gai's approach and gave a slight nod.

"Gai." He said softly.

"Haishi." Gai responded with a nod of his own.  
The two had worked together in the past and were reasonably familiar with each other.

Gai came to stand next to Haishi and peered into the Dojo.

What he saw impressed him.

Naruto and Hinata sparred, and while their forms were clearly improvised and both were flawed they moved with a fluid grace that belied their age.

As Gai watched Hinata moved forward to attack with a palm strike directed at Naruto's left shoulder.

Naruto twisted to dodge her strike and countered with one of his own.

Naruto's strike grazed Hinata's side and was accompanied with the dull whump that Gai had been hearing, but instead of being blown back by it Hinata used the momentum to pivot around and directed it into a hammerfist.

Naruto wasn't able to block in time and he was knocked over backwards.

At the same time the force of the spin combined with the jarring impact of the blow caused Hinata to lose her balance.

Naruto turned the backwards fall into a roll and came up into a crouch at about the same time that Hinata got her balance sorted out.

Both were breathing heavily and paused for a moment before Naruto began to laugh.

"Good one." He said as he rubbed his jaw. "I didn't see that coming. Nice hit."

Hinata smiled and seemed to flush a bit more, though she had been quite rosy cheeked already.

"Thanks." She said simply.

"Need a break?" Naruto asked.

Hinata considered for a moment and then nodded.

The two bowed and then went to sit on one of the benches. at the edge of the room.

"I had nearly written my daughter off." Hiashi said softly to Gai as they watched the two sit on the bench with drinks and talk.

"She seemed unsuited for the traditional Juuken, and while I had hoped that she would one day be great I couldn't see how." Hiashi continued. "And then she did this. She recruited the village prankster and is having him help her forge out our bloodline's single greatest weakness."

"A most youthful endeavor." Gai said with a smile and a tone of genuine respect.

"I am inclined to agree." Hiashi mused.

"It is most unusual for an academy student to be able to combine an elemental release with a taijutsu attack." Gai observed.

"It does not appear to be an elemental release." Hiashi stated simply.

"Really?" Gai said in surprise as he rubbed his chin. "I wonder how such a feat is accomplished then."

"It appears to be based upon one of the chakra control techniques taught in the academy." Hiashi explained. "The leaf exercise if I recall correctly."

"I see." Gai mused. "So rather than causing an object to stick to your skin you are attempting to push it away."

Hiashi nodded."It seems that a chakra charge is built up before the strike lands and is discharged upon contact to magnify the force of the blow."

"A versatile techinque that would pair well with nearly any taijutsu style." Gai observed thoughtfully.

"It is." Hiashi agreed."As you can see it allows the Uzumaki boy to survive, and even arguably thrive in a close combat environment against my daughter's Juuken; even as young as she is few could say that."

"Such a technique would be most valuable to my student, Lee." Gai mused aloud.

"Isn't he the boy who cannot use chakra?" Hiashi asked in confusion.

"Lee is unable to mould chakra outside of his body due to damaged chakra coils." Gai corrected. "However he is still able to channel it, and he has successfully completed the leaf exercise and is currently making steady progress on tree walking."

Hiashi raised a speculative eyebrow. A student of Maito Gai dedicated exclusively to taijutsu wielding Naruto's technique?

He considered the possibilities for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

"Such an action would be quite... diabolical."

Gai smiled.  
It wasn't the warm smile of the goofy guy who ran around the village in green spandex either, it was the cold, hard smile of the Jounin who was able to rival copycat Kakashi and who had standing flee on sight orders from at least three of the smaller ninja villages.

"I also considered the possibility to be most _youthful_." Gai said cooly.

Hiashi smiled in return.

"Gai, perhaps we could come to some sort of arrangement." He mused.

"What sort of arrangement did you have in mind, Hiashi?" Gai asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In the interest of helping Neji improve I would be happy to open my clan's training facilities to your team." Hiashi said airily. "However I was wondering if in return you might spare a bit of time to help my daughter with a few of her training sessions."

Gai shot the pair of academy students a speculative look.

"And if one of your daughter's friends should happen to be visiting for these sessions..." He mused.

Hiashi shrugged.

"Which precise person my daughter spars with is not my concern." He said smoothly. "The results of her training are."

"I think we might be able to work something out, Hiashi." Gai said with a grin that would have radically altered his student's perceptions of their sensei.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

A week later Sarutobi Hiruzen sat quietly in one of the large conference rooms in the lower levels of the administrative tower with his hat sitting next to him.  
This room was actually designated as a courtroom, though it wasn't one of the grand courtrooms used for high profile trials.

Instead of a standard judge and jury like a civilian court Konoha used ninja triads.  
Two active nin of Chuunin rank or higher would be selected to serve at random to judge a case.  
Each panel contained at least one randomly selected jounin to preside over the case and ensure that everything was in order, and to either break a tie or declare a mistrial in the event that the two randomly selected judges could not agree on the outcome.

Appeals could be sent to any Special High Ninja, or the Hokage himself.

Typically all appeals were sent to Special High Ninja Morino Ibiki, who was the head of the Torture and Interrogation division.

The number of appeals actually submitted to Ibiki was actually low, and were almost universally innocent parties, but appeals submitted to the Hokage or to one of the other Special High Ninja were usually simply forwarded over to Ibiki who had a knack for ferreting out the truth.

The reason Hiruzen was thinking about this was that he was here to serve as the plaintiff in a trial, but that wouldn't be happening until later.

First, the fool who had thought it wise to attack his ward in the middle of the bazaar had decided it was also a good idea to bring assault charges against Neji for defending Naruto.

Apparently he somehow thought that living a few houses down from one of the members of the civilian council would change things for him.

Just what precisely the man thought the role of the council for civilian affairs was in what amounted to a military dictatorship - Hiruzen's dictatorship - Hiruzen couldn't say, but he would hazard that the man was quite amusingly wrong.

Hiruzen was shaken from his musings when the Chuunin serving as bailiff entered and blandly called out. "All rise."

He rose when the judges entered and raised an eyebrow.  
This explained why his secretary had seemed so smug this morning, It seemed that she had been feeling vindictive when she had 'randomly' selected the panel.

Mitarashi Anko was the presiding Jounin arbiter and Hiruzen's secretary was one of the judges.  
The other was Umino Iruka, a teacher from the academy.

Hiruzen met Anko's eye and quietly patted the hat sitting next to him on the bench to signify that he was not here in his official capacity and the triad should do their job normally.

After all, it wasn't like he couldn't just fill out an appeal, have the appropriate party sign it and then approve it himself later if he disagreed with their decision.

Being the Hokage was a hard job, but it did have its perks.

Anko nodded slightly; it seemed that she understood.

The triad quickly got down to business handling the various cases before them.

A ninja was suspended for disorderly conduct after being arrested for drunkenly knocking on the doors of each restaurant in town at 2 in the morning after his bar closed in an attempt to get food.

A civilian was sentenced to 6 months hard labor for petty theft, and another was acquitted when it came to light that the shopkeeper had filed a false report in an effort to get rid of his daughter's boyfriend.

An appeal from a member of the civilian council trying to get the panel to overturn Hiruzen's previous decision not to have the village immediately start funding an ongoing C rank mission to any willing kunoichi to carry children for Sasuke in order to 'bolster the dangerously low ranks of the noble Uchiha clan' was swiftly thrown out.

Honestly, every time he dealt with them Hiruzen was more and more tempted to just disband the council altogether. What were these fools thinking? The only person who could overturn his decision was the Daimyo.

Perhaps he should just hold council meetings in the T&I department to save time, Hiruzen mused.

"Next on the docket we have Tomiko Daiki vs. Hyuuga Neji." The

Just then the courtroom doors opened and Hatake Kakashi walked casually in, the latest addition to his rather extensive pornographic collection firmly in hand.

"Hello, everyone. it seems I've been assigned to represent someone today." Kakashi said lazily.

"You're late!" Daiki growled.

"Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the way here." Kakashi rebutted with false sincerity.

"We were just starting your case." Anko said amusedly.

"Oh, what a lucky coincidence!" Kakashi said with apparent surprise as he sat down next to Daiki.

"Bailiff, read the summary." Anko ordered.

"The plaintiff is alleging that the defendant assaulted him a week ago in the Bazaar and is requesting that the court sentence the defendant appropriately."

"Very well, let's move on to opening statements. Kakashi, go." Anko said quickly.

"The client I have been assigned to represent got his face bashed in by Neji. He doesn't think he deserved that." Kakashi said idly as he flipped the page.

"Short and simple, I like it." Anko said. "Gai, your turn."

"Neji is exempt from any charges of wrongdoing due to executive order 271." Gai said flatly.

"Well, I guess that's settled." Kakashi said as he flipped the book sideways, flipped out the centerfold and uncovered his sharingan before he whistled softly. "Very nice."

"What?!" Daiki snapped. "Like hell it does! What's executive order 271?"

"Classified." Anko said simply.

"This is a court proceeding!" Daiki exclaimed in outrage. "I have a right to know what information is being used against me!"

"Alright." Anko agreed sweetly. "Bailiff, per the Konoha rules of litigation, take this man to a secure location and provide him with the pertinent details of executive order 271."

She paused just long enough for Daiki to smirk. "And then, per section five of the secrets act, kill him to prevent the unauthorized spread of S-ranked information."

"I-I w-with d-draw m-my p-p-pett-tet-tion f-for i-inf-form-mat-tion." Daiki stuttered as he suddenly found himself to be trembling uncontrollably.

"Very well." Anko said with an angelic grin.

Iruka and the Hokage's secretary glanced at each other and grinned. "Case dismissed." They said in unison.

"Next case." Anko ordered.

"The next case is Sarutobi Hiruzen vs Tomiko Daiki."  
The entire courtroom went silent for a moment.

"Bailiff, the summary." Anko ordered.

"The plaintiff is alleging that the defendant assaulted his ward a week ago in the Bazaar and is requesting that the court sentence the defendant appropriately." The bailiff said with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

"Very well, opening statements." Anko said evenly.

"The defendant hit my ward, Uzumaki Naruto in the head with a rock." Hiruzen said simply. "I want justice for my ward."

"A reasonable request." Anko mused aloud.

"Opening statements for the defense?" She said as she glanced at Kakashi who was leaking killing intent as he glared at Daiki.

"My client is a moron and throws himself on the mercy of Morino Ibiki." Kakashi ground out after a moment.

"And does the plaintiff find this acceptable?" Anko asked in amusement.

"I do." Hiruzen said serenely.

"Wonderful!" Anko clapped. "How about the judges?"

The two Chuunin conferred quietly for a moment.  
"We find this acceptable." Iruka said.

"Then the defendant is to be remanded into the custody of Special High Ninja Morino for rehabilitation." Anko said airily. "God I love this job. Bailiff, hurry up with the next case, happy hour starts soon."


	6. Chapter 6

Yakushi Kabuto walked calmly into his room after another day 'training' with his team.

After ensuring that he was alone he quickly seated himself at his desk before running through a short series of seals. "Ghostly image projection." He called out softly and waited for a moment for the sense of vertigo to pass as the technique took affect.

Then Kabuto picked up a scroll from his father's medical library and began to read as he waited for the results of the technique to return to him.

Two hours later Kabuto frowned as the memories from his projection returned.

Kabuto's eyes lost focus as his mind processed the memories.

After using the technique Kabuto found himself standing in a sealed underground room.

No matter how many times he used the technique it always felt surreal to remember being in a place he had never seen with his own eyes.

The fact that the senses of touch and balance were stripped from these memories while sight hearing and smell remained strong only served to make them more surreal.

Habit born from years of experience compelled Kabuto to look around despite the fact that he knew that nothing could hurt him currently.

He was in what appeared to be a sealed stone chamber, which he presumed was underground.

The chamber seemed to be hewn from greenish yellow limestone.

It was a perfect cube with a sandy floor and the only sources of illumination were the four softly glowing seals in each corner of the ceiling.

The chamber was completely bare save for four small alcoves carved into the center of each wall.

Each alcove contained a scroll just a bit over six inches long and barely large enough for a man to wrap his hand around, and one of them was softly glowing with chakra.

Kabuto resisted the urge to attempt to investigate the scrolls again.

He knew it was futile since he couldn't touch anything, and he knew they were some sort of fuuinjutsu array that Master Orochimaru had made that allowed him to reverse summon a sentient bunshin to this place.

It was actually quite brilliant, it had a low power requirement and an extremely high range but it was also infuriating because Kabuto was unable to inspect the scrolls more closely.

if he reached out to touch them his hand would go right through the object of his curiosity, and so with a soft grumble Kabuto settled in to wait.

Kabuto waited for an hour before he heard a small pop.

He looked up to find a slim man with long platinum blond hair standing across the room from him.

"Kimimaru." Kabuto greeted with a nod.

"Kabuto." Kimimaru greeted evenly. "Still no sign of Master Orochimaru?"

Kabuto shook his head. "It's the third meeting in a row that he's missed; I think something is wrong."

"This isn't like him." Kimimaru agreed. "But I'm sure he'll be alright."

Kabuto smirked dangerously. "If he's not someone will have hell to pay."

"Damn right." Kimimaru agreed.

The two turned as they heard a soft pop.

They found a slim bespectacled redhead standing next to a third scroll.

"Where's Master Orochimaru?" The woman asked.

"Karin, nice of you to join us." Kabuto said pleasantly. "Master seems to be indisposed for the time being, Kimimaru and I will be running things while he is out."

Karin shrugged. "Fine, shall we go over the experiment results?"

Kabuto waved for her to continue and the meeting proceeded almost normally.

Kabuto shook himself as his mind finished processing the memories from his clone and then he quietly began to plan.

He needed to see if Konoha had any information on his master's whereabouts.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-  
Hatake Kakashi, perhaps better known by his ANBU callsign Hound, was sitting happily in the ready room next to the Hokage's office and enjoying an absolute work of art.

A civilian would be incensed at the sight of a full squad of ANBU operatives seated comfortably in a rather spartain room with each intently studying their own copy of the latest book in the infamous Icha Icha series of adult novels.

For that matter most of the lower ranking nin would as well.

Of course the odds of anyone living long enough to express their outrage were low, but that's another matter.

Nin with higher security clearances would usually ask to borrow a copy, or ask if the reader had got to the good part yet.

Most people would misunderstand this as everyone involved being an unashamed pervert.

And while in some cases that may have been true, that's not why the upper ranks of Konoha's shinobi force attacked Icha Icha like a starving man in an unguarded bakery.

The truth was that Icha Icha was an absolute goldmine for a shinobi if you knew how to read it.

The latest copy contained over twenty thousand encrypted messages that Kakashi had found, often having as many as ten of them overlapping across the same page of text without interfering with each other.

Operational procedures.  
Blackmail material.  
Guard rotations.  
Tactical plans.  
Maps.  
Medical reports.

This book had just about anything a Konoha nin would need to operate almost anywhere in the elemental nations.

A man with a spy network this good could topple kingdoms and carve himself out an empire.

Instead Jiraiya the sage encrypted it and had it sold for 500 ryo in every town on the continent.

The sheer audacity of such a move was both amusing and terrifying at the same time.

A speaker set in the wall crackled to life.

"Hound, Rabbit, a word please."

The Hokage's voice said.

Kakashi snapped his book closed and headed for Hiruzen's office along with his teammate.

"Gentlemen, have a seat." Hiruzen said grimly. Both men complied silently.

"Sometime this morning between oh two hundred and oh six hundred a number of classified files were compromised." Hiruzen said simply."Among them were your personnel files."

The two men glanced at each other silently and waited for the Hokage to continue.

"The security seals on the file storage were disabled indicating some skill with Fuunjutsu, but the seals on the files themselves appear to have activated normally. As such we must presume that the files were compromised. You cannot serve as ANBU any longer, I'm sorry."

"Understood, sir." Kakashi said woodenly as he wondered who had managed to punch him in the stomach.

After a moment Kakashi shook himself.  
Now wasn't the time to mope.

"Sir, won't it be suspicious for us both to retire so suddenly after our files are obtained?" He asked.

Hiruzen grinned darkly."We believe the seals on the files activated normally, so key aspects of the information would be falsified, including existing orders to retire both of you from ANBU." He explained. "Kakashi, you just failed a psychological evaluation. you never got over your sensei and original genin team getting killed. Start acting like a depressed headcase."

"Understood sir!" Kakashi replied automatically.

Hiruzen turned to rabbit.  
"Hayate, you have contracted a chronic lung disease. Start coughing."

"Yes sir!" The rabbit masked man acknowledged.

"Very good gentleman, here are the details." Hiruzen said as he passed a folder to each of them. "Dismissed."

As the two former ANBU left Hiruzen turned and opened his window to allow a bit of air and light in.

He was greeted by the sound of outraged shrieks as several women clad in only towels chased an older white haired man down the streets.

"I wonder what Jiraiya needs." Hiruzen muttered as he casually created a shadow clone to man the office and then henged himself into a different appearance.

"He doesn't give the signal for an emergency meeting without a good reason." The clone said to the now young looking man as it took his seat.

"Hmm." Hiruzen grumbled for a moment before he walked out of the office.

Enjoyable as it was he wished Jiraiya would consent to a different way to arrange covert meetings.

As Hiruzen strolled out of the administrative building he spied one of the women from the hotsprings running through the street in search of Jiraiya.

Yuhi Kurenai if he was not mistaken, she would do nicely.

As the already incensed woman ran by Hiruzen reached out and carefully tugged the trailing corner of the towel she was wrapped in without her noticing.

A few steps later the towel had worked itself loose and fell abruptly, tripping her.

Hiruzen's borrowed visage twisted into a leer as he gave a whistle.

"Not bad, baby." Hiruzen said as he made a show of looking Kurenai up and down. "Ya busy?"

Kurenai lunged with a snarl.

"On top of the dancing slug" Kurenai whispered as Hiruzen turned tail and ran.

After a few blocks Hiruzen quickly created a mud clone in one of the alleys and used a kawirimi to switch places with it, leaving Kurenai to continue the charade by chasing his clone.

He discreetly made his way to the roof of the local bar that Kurenai had named, where he found Jiraiya sitting quietly on the roof as he sipped a drink.

"Only super perverts are allowed up here kid," Jiraiya said in a bored tone.

"Pervert implies that you are somehow abnormal." Hiruzen calmly said to provide the countersign as he approached.

"Good to see ya, old man." Jiraiya said softly as he offered the man a bowl of sake.

"Likewise, but that doesn't explain why you signaled for a covert meeting." Hiruzen pointed out dryly.

"First of all it's fun." Jiraiya pointed out with a grin as he watched a gaggle of towel clad women run by.

"Jiraiya," Hiruzen groaned.

"Right." The white haired man said seriously as he watched Hiruzen take a drink. "First the good news. I have confirmation that Orochimaru is dead."

Hiruzen choked and then coughed for a few moments as Jiraiya grinned at him.

"Could you repeat that?" Hiruzen asked once he had caught his breath.

"Orochimaru went and got himself killed trying to steal something from the leader of Akatsuki." Jiraiya said with amusement.

Hiruzen whistled softly.  
"Damn." He said as he mulled the news over. "Any word on what he was trying to grab?"

"That's the bad news." Jiraiya said as he handed Hiruzen a small scroll and then waited patiently as the other man read the contents.

"Damn." Hiruzen cursed again when he finished reading. "You're sure about this?" He asked as he set the scroll alight with a small fire jutsu.

"As sure as possible without actually having it in my hands." Jiraiya agreed grimly. "And Orochimaru was sure enough to try stealing it from the base of an organization comprised entirely of S ranked missing nin."

"Fuck me." Hiruzen said softly before he shook himself.  
"Find Tsunade, tell her Alpha Blue wants a word." He instructed quickly. "She should stop arguing at that point, then get her on this. I want her to reverse engineer the technique."

"You plan to fight fire with fire?" Jiraiya asked.

Hiruzen shook his head.

"Even if we did that the best we could hope for is a stalemate. I'm hoping if she can recreate it she can also reverse it." He explained.

Jiraiya gaped for a moment.  
"You want a way to kill 'em off." He realized.

"Not just Akatsuki either." Hiruzen confirmed grimly. "All of them need to go."

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Mitarashi Anko awoke early and stretched as she watched the edge of the sun wink lazily at her over the horizon.

Anko normally kept her windows closed and her blinds down but last night she had decided that she wanted some fresh air and now she was glad she had.

She had been up late drinking the night before, and yet she wasn't hung over.

In fact she felt absolutely fabulous, like she had had a hot soak and a massage before going to bed early rather than staying up all night drinking.

Come to think of it she had been feeling better and better all week, anko mused as she rolled out of bed with a contented smile and dropped her nightgown in the hamper on the way to the shower.

Why, the seal on her shoulder hadn't hurt in nearly ten days Anko thought as she waved cheerily to the merchant who stood frozen in the street outside her open window before she ambled happily into the bathroom and closed the door.

Anko decided the bathroom needed some fresh air, so she walked over and flung open the window.

The merchant outside had just shaken himself out of his stupor and taken his first step when Anko threw open the window.

"Good morning!" She called as she waved cheerily.

The merchant nodded and gave a halfhearted wave as his head seemed to take on an odd swaying motion as he stared dumbly at anko's chest.

Anko stepped into the shower and hummed along with the tune she could hear the birds chirping through the open window,

It wasn't that the seal didn't do anything. Anko realized idly.

It's just that it felt nice now; before it had felt corrupted and wrong, but now it felt comforting, like a warm towel and hot chocolate on a cold rainy day.

Anko froze with her hand on the faucet, her good mood instantly gone.

She suddenly felt violated in a way that she hadn't in a very long time.

That bastard that used to be her sensei had done something to make the seal feel good.

Anko whirled and stalked out of the shower, her good mood and relaxation forgotten.

She grabbed her trench coat and pulled it around herself as she stepped out of the door and went in search of Ibiki.

She had to report this immediately.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Morino Ibiki sat quietly in his office as he put the final touches on his latest genjutsu.

Most civilians who knew of his position as the head of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation department thought of him as a sadistic man who enjoyed brutally torturing helpless prisoners and did it for fun.

The truth was a man like that was much more likely to wind up in one of ibiki's cells than as head of theT&I department.

Konoha was a ninja village and while most people knew that they didn't stop and think about what it really meant.

Ninja were trained to go beyond the limits of what was physically possible for a normal human.

Ninja are trained to thrive in conditions that would outright kill almost anyone else.

Attempting to coerce meaningful information from a ninja through brute force was quite simply a losing proposition; Ibiki was breathing proof of that.

In many ways what Ibiki actually did was worse than what the civilians thought he did, he mused as he worked.

Ibiki didn't make the prisoners suffer; worse, he made them think of him as their friend.

Oh, Ibiki could torture with the best of them when the situation called for it, but why coerce unreliable information from an enemy when you could be willingly given accurate information from someone who thought of you as their best friend?

Ibiki's musings were interrupted when one of his colleagues unceremoniously opened his office door.

Mitarashi Anko strode quickly into the office.

Ibiki noted that she seemed distraught, she also seemed to be wearing nothing but her trenchcoat, which while it adequately covered her it was quite uncharacteristic of the flamboyant young woman to go out with anything less than the equipment she would need for a two week field assignment on her person.

Something was drastically wrong.

"Anko, have a seat." Ibiki said calmly as he gestured at the chair across his desk.

The trenchcoat adequately covered Anko when she was standing, Ibiki wryly amended to his mental log.

"How can I Help you?" Ibiki said, taking care to keep his eyes focused on the woman's face.

"I t-think I've been compromised." Anko said with a hitch in her voice.

Ibiki frowned for a moment before he hit his intercom button on his desk.

"Please get Inoichi and report to my office with him." He instructed his assistant calmly.

"Thanks for taking this seriously." Anko said in a small, scared voice that was very unlike her usual brash tone.

"When someone with your level of access says they may have been compromised I have to take it seriously." Ibiki said cooly "Lives hang in the balance, quite possibly ours included. "

Anko nodded, and smiled mistily.

A few moments later there was a knock at the door.

"Enter." Ibiki called, and a moment later Inoichi and Ibiki's Chuunin assistant entered the room.

"Gentleman, thank you for joining us." Ibiki said once the door closed.

"Special Jounin Mitarashi has reported that she may have been compromised." Ibiki explained in a bland, clipped tone. "As she is rated for subversion genjutsu by our own department I am implementing a contamination protocol until we get to the bottom of this; at least two subversion rated personnel are to guard her at all times. No one outside of the department is to be allowed to see her without prior approval from at least two of the following three parties; The acting head of this department, The hokage, and the Diamyo."

"Understood." The two nin chorused.

"As I have been alone with Special Joinin Mitarashi myself today I am officially standing down as head of T&I until I can be re-vetted to ensure that I am free if compulsions."Ibiki said calmly. "As such Inoichi should be acting head. I would recommend enacting the same protocol for myself as for Anko."

"I'll take that under consideration." Inoichi said flatly. "Until then, please step away from that desk; I believe it contains a number of sensitive documents and it would be a pity to have to kill you before we take your mind apart and see how it works."

Ibiki smirked as he complied; he might have to stage this sort of thing once in a while just to see how his people reacted.

So far they were handling things with the professionalism he expected.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Hiruzen sighed as he walked down the hallway towards the holding cells.

Honestly, he respected their professionalism but Anko and Ibiki could be a bit... Trying... in their fervor at times.

"You're sure this is a false alarm?" Inoichi said doubtfully.

"Reasonably." Hiruzen agreed.

"And you cannot explain how you know?" Inoichi said dubiously.

"That's need to know information." Hiruzen said cheerfully.

"And the acting head of T&I doesn't need to know why the behavior of two of our best people is increasingly erratic." Inoichi said with a frown.

"I knew you'd understand Inoichi." Hiruzen said with a grin. "that's why I like you, you're very perceptive."

"I see." Inoichi said flatly before pausing for a moment and looking around warily.

"Is something wrong?"Hiruzen asked curiously.

"I thought I felt a draft, but this building is well sealed." Inoichi said as he made a handseal and appeared to concentrate.

"I can't feel anything unusual nearby." Hiruzen said with a shrug.

"Neither can I." Inoichi agreed. "Now about this false alarm business-"

"Now don't fret, I'm going to interview Anko to confirm my information; if I can confirm that she's not compromised than we can forget this whole mess." Hiruzen interrupted with a wave.

"Understood, sir." Inoichi said, feeling a bit better.

If the Hokage was personally verifying that Anko was clean hopefully he wouldn't have to try to do Ibiki's job for much longer; Inoichi didn't envy Ibiki at all.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Anko paced her cell morosely.

It wasn't a bad cell, really. Anko thought to herself.

It was covered in comfortable white padding, it was well lit and it had its own sink, toilet and cot.

Everything she really needed; Why with just some more color it could be quite cozy.

Perhaps a nice mural of a beach on that wall and a few flowers over there? Anko mused.

Damn it, that seal was messing with her head again. Damn Orochimaru too.

Anko's pacing was interrupted by the sound of her door opening; was it dinner time already?

"Come with us." One of the guards said stoically.

Anko stepped between the guards docilly and followed them to one of the secure interrogation rooms.

She found Hiruzen there waiting for her.

"Honorable Hokage." Anko greeted quietly.

"Anko." Hiruzen greeted with a nod. "Have a seat."

Anko complied.

"So, tell me about your day." Hiruzen said pleasently, and so the interrogation began.  
Anko found herself grilled, questioned and cross-examined about every detail and bit of minutia she could remember

When had she noticed that the seal had felt different?  
What did she have for lunch yesterday?  
What was her favorite color?  
When did she think her behavior had changed?  
It went on and on for nearly three hours without a break.  
The whole time Hiruzen's face was expressionless; his face may as well have been carved from marble, until suddenly he grinned.

"Anko, you're clean." He said simply, interrupting her explanation.

"W-what?" Anko stammered.

"You're clean of outside influence." Sarutobi said cheerfully as he reached for his pipe.

"But the seal-" Anko began to protest.

"Is working correctly without outside chakra being fed into it." A voice behind Anko said evenly.

Anko whirled and reached for a weapon that wasn't there.

"Take it easy, kid."Jiraiya said with a grin.

Anko gaped. "How long have you been there?"

Jiraiya's grin just grew.

"I wasn't here." He said before he vanished in a puff of air.

Jiraiya was capable of getting in and out of the most secure rooms that T&I had without alerting anyone to his presence, the calm, calculating part of Anko's mind noted as the rest of her gibbered in shock.

"Why is the seal affecting me like this if I'm not being influenced?" Anko asked after a few moments.

"Because nothing is influencing you." Hiruzen said wisely.  
Anko glared.

"Do you recall your initial briefing on the seal?" Hirzuen asked after a moment.

"Yes, it takes my chakra, ambient chakra and Orochimaru's chakra and infuses all of them into a cohesive unit that I can tap for a power boost, but that gives Orochimaru a level of influence over my mind if I use it."

"That was correct." Hiruzen said airily.

Anko froze as a realization hit her; Hiruzen may be old but he didn't make mistakes often, and when he did he didn't repeat them twice in a single conversation.

"Are you saying my link to Orochimaru has been severed?" She demanded.

Hiruzen smiled icily. "Any information you may know, gather or infer regarding that individual is classified." He said formally.

"Understood, honored Hokage." Anko said automatically as her mind whirled.  
But Hiruzen didn't give her time to work through everything.

"I am authorizing a paid leave of absence for your re-training." He said. "I want our new serpent sage up to speed."

Anko blinked. "Sir?" She said uncertainly.

"Why was the seal created, Anko?" Hiruzen asked patiently.

"It was created to allow the creation of an army of Senjutsu users." Anko said slowly.

"And how does Senjutsu work?" Hiruzen asked slowly, as if he were speaking to a small child.

"In theory it allows a user to absorb ambient chakra, fuse it with their own and then use it, sir." Anko said before her eyes widened and her jaw went slack in shocked realization. "Oh."

"Yes, oh." Hiruzen said as he grinned like a child in a candy store. "By the way, let me be the first to congratulate you on gaining access to sage mode, you'll be taking some time off to learn to use it."

"So I don't just automatically get limited invulnerability and a high degree of chakra sensing?" Anko asked wryly. "I thought it sounded too good to be true."

Hiruzen chuckled and shook his head.

"Unfortunately the laws of skill, effort and hard work still apply. Take as much time as you need, but get back to a hundred percent, I have work for you. Oh, and this conversation is classified as well." Hiruzen said as he stood up and headed for the door.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: This fic wouldn't be as good as it is without help from the CaerAzkaban Yahoo group.

Naruto walked warily up to the gates of the Hyuuga clan compound.

"Good afternoon sir." The guard on the left said brightly.

"Hi." Naruto said with pursed lips and narrowed eyes.

"How can we help you today?" The guard on the right asked cheerfully.

"I'm here to see Hinata." Naruto sighed as he prepared himself for another verbal sparring match.

"Right you are sir, you can go through." The guard on the left said as he turned  
and signalled for the gate to open.

"She told us you were coming." The guard on the right added helpfully.

Naruto gaped at the polite, efficient and helpful guards, then at the open gate,  
then back at the guards before gesturing at the gate in wordless confusion as  
his mouth worked much like a fish out of water.

"Was there something else you needed sir?" The guard on the left asked politely.

At this point Naruto seemed to find his voice, and he began to rant:

"What the hell?" He said gesturing wildly at the open gate.

"What the fuckin' hell man?! You two ..."

And at this point the guards tuned Naruto out.

"Do you think he has Tourette's?" The guard on the left asked.

"I didn't know the Inuzuka allowed other clans to crossbreed with their dogs!" Naruto continued to rant.

The guard on the right considered Naruto for a moment and shook his head.

"Nah, the kid's had a rough week, he just needs someone to curse at." He said.

"We were assholes to him before." The guard on the left said thoughtfully.

"True..." The guard on the right mused. "Hey kid, 'your mom' insults usually  
sound inept and childish. Better to imply that I do inappropriate things with  
livestock or that my girlfriend keeps a toy because I can't satisfy her." He  
said cheerfully.

"Oh, thanks for the tip." Naruto said with a grin, then he frowned and rubbed the back of his head.  
"Where was I? " He mused aloud.

"You were just implying that my grandmother had a pet donkey named Sodomy." The guard on the left said.

"Yeah well- " Naruto began but the guard on the left cut him off.

"Once you stop ranting and talk to someone normally you can't start ranting again. " He said sternly.

"It's rude." The guard on the right added helpfully.

Naruto gaped at the pair.

"Look kid, our job is to make sure that only people we are told to let past get through this gate." The guard on the left explained.

"A few days ago you weren't on the list, now you are. It's as simple as that." The guard on the right added.

"You guys are assholes." Naruto grumbled as he stalked through the gate.

The last thing Naruto heard before the gate groaned shut with a dull thump was the guards  
laughing.

Naruto found himself faced by an older ninja.  
He still seemed to be in good shape, but his face was heavily lined and his hair was grey.

"Hello honored Uzumaki." The old man said genially as he gave a shallow bow. "My name is Hyuuga Haruki, and I'm in charge of the training for the younger clan members here, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Uh, Thanks." Naruto said as he awkwardly returned the man's bow. "It's nice ta meetchya."

"Thank you." Haruki said with a kindly smile. "Miss Hinata told me that you would be joining her for her afternoon training session; I am pleased that you were able to arrive a few minutes early."

"I figured the guards'd gimme trouble." Naruto said as he cast a dark look at the gate.

"Well you needn't worry about that again." Haruki laughed. "They've been instructed to allow you to pass on regular training days. Come, let me show you to the Dojo."

Haruki quickly led Naruto down a lane lined with houses, workshops, warehouses and even a small clan only market area.

Soon they arrived at the square which they quickly crossed before entering the Dojo that Naruto had visited before.

Haruki paused for a moment in the doorway before leading Naruto to a bench along the wall near one of the mats where a couple of the clan kids were practicing.

"Wait here, they seem to be near the end of the set" Haruki said as he turned to leave.

"Eh?" Naruto said with a frown as he rubbed the back of his head.

Haruki raised an eyebrow and gestured at the two kids in the mat.

Naruto looked at them and then started to look away before doing a double take and smacking himself in the face as he realized that the two kids on the mat were Neji and Hinata.

Haruki walked away chuckling quietly as Naruto sat down to watch.

After failing to pay attention to his surroundings so utterly Naruto carefully looked around and nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized that there was someone sitting quietly on the next bench over not four steps from him.

Kohaku gave Naruto a slight nod and a half smile when he noticed her before she went back to watching Neji help Hinata with her forms.

Soon Hinata and Neji finished and walked over to Naruto.

"Hey Hinata!" Naruto called with grin and a wave.

"Hello Naruto." Hinata said with a small smile.

"Neji." Naruto said with a nod.

"Greetings Honored Uzumaki." Neji said politely.

"Been helpin' Hinata with her forms eh?" Naruto asked casually.

"He has." Hinata beamed. "He's been very helpful."

"He has?" Naruto asked in apparent shock. "Wow man, good for ya!"

"You did not think I had the skill to teach?" Neji asked stiffly as Hinata touched her fingers together nervously.

"Naw man." Naruto said casually. "I jus' thought ya were too much of an asshole to bother."

"Naruto!" Hinata gasped.  
Neji seemed to be equal parts angry, shocked and ashamed.

However whatever response Neji was about to give was derailed by a choking sound coming from the next bench over.

"Kohaku!" Hinata exclaimed in shock.

Naruto turned to see the old lady he had seen before red faced with her shoulders shaking in suppressed laughter.

This caused Naruto's finely perfected control to crack and he broke down in laughter.

"I'm just fuckin' with ya." He gasped after a moment. "Yer alright Neji."

"That was a joke?" Neji asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well yeah." Naruto said with a shrug.

"I see." Neji said as he drew himself up and clasped his hands behind his back. "In that case it seems that I owe you an apology. "

"Eh?" Naruto said articulately as he scratched his head.

"I apologize for breaking into your apartment and cleaning your underwear." Neji said formally.

"I know." Naruto said with a scowl. "That reminds me, I gotta see Gramps soon."

"We're still going to train, right?" Hinata asked nervously.

"Of course we are!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin

"Good!" Neji said. "Hinata said you were trying to make your own style, I would like to see it."

Naruto shrugged walked to the center of the and started going through an academy form that used palm strikes and chops instead of punches.

"You'll want to keep your hands closed when you aren't striking. " Neji advised.

"Why? I'm using palm strikes." Naruto asked.

"Keeps an enemy from being able to grab your fingers and break them. " Neji said with a shrug.

"Won't that make it tougher to do the palm strikes?" Naruto asked.

"Perhaps a bit." Neji allowed. "But those strikes would have been weak and sloppy anyhow. "

"What should I do then?" Naruto asked.

"Try it this way." Neji said as he began to demonstrate.

And so the three settled into an easy comradeship for a couple of hours as they worked together.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Sarutobi Hiruzen puffed contentedly at his pipe as he handled his paperwork.

Most people thought that Hiruzen spent the majority of his day handling paperwork of various sorts.

Those people were mostly civilians who also didn't really understand that Hiruzen's filing methods included options like 'send this asshole to have tea with Ibiki' and 'use this moron for assassination training'.

Between his esoteric filing options and the glorious empowerment that was delegation Hiruzen rarely spent more than half of a standard workday on paperwork.

Oh, his old teammate Danzo tried to make trouble from time to time by having Hiruzen swamped with paperwork while he tried to sneak something by him, but after having a few dozen operatives that had been planted in Hiruzen's office die in mysterious accidents Danzo had discarded that tactic as ineffective.

Hiruzen chuckled as he remembered the great crossdressing lover's suicide pacts of yesteryear; what a wonderful way to clean house.

Hiruzen's musings were cut short by Naruto entering his office.

"Hello Naruto, how are you?" Hiruzen asked pleasantly.

"You let me think that a pervert had broken inta my apartment an' played with my dirty underwears!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well you did run around yelling that someone had surpassed my level of perversion." Hiruzen pointed out mildly. "It seemed reasonable at the time."

Naruto considered that for a moment and then grinned.

"It was a pretty good prank." Naruto allowed, and then he frowned again.

"Gramps I'm sorry I hurt yer reputation. " He said seriously.

"Not to worry, I turned it to my advantage. " Hiruzen chuckled.

"Really? How?" Naruto asked eagerly.

Hiruzen reached into his desk and drew out the skimpiest pair of women's underwear that Naruto had seen in the vast pool of experience that living eleven years had provided him.

Naruto's spleen seemed to hop into his throat when Hiruzen lazily tossed him the tiny garment.

They were made of black silk and had stenciled white writing on the front.  
it read:"Property of Konoha ninja corps. If found please return to Shimura Danzo, central administration building, Konoha."

"This morning every unattached kunoichi of the leaf woke up this morning to find their regular underwear missing and those in their place." Hiruzen said smugly.

"Who's Shimura Danzo?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"A busybody who thinks that he is a great deal more clever than he actually is." Hiruzen said cooly as he knocked the ashes from his pipe and set about refilling it.

"Won't they figure out that it was you?" Naruto asked as he gestured at the incriminating garment.

Hiruzen deftly grabbed the panties and flipped them over.  
on the back was his secretary's signature next to a kiss mark in lipstick.

"My secretary gave these to me as a souvenir, she figured it out, but she won't tell anyone. " Hiruzen explained.

He felt no need to tell Naruto that she figured it out because she had compiled  
the list of kunoichi for him, or that she had worn the underwear into his office  
before signing it, though perhaps Jiraiya would be interested in those details.

"What'd ya do with the other underwears?" Naruto asked as he passed the panties back to Hiruzen.

"In a box under Danzo's desk." Hiruzen said with a grin as he relit his pipe.

"Ain't that a bit obvious?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"It might be if I hadn't also hit the kunoichi in Danzo's illegal splinter group." Hiruzen said with a grin.

"I see why ya say he thinks he's smarter than he really is." Naruto said with laugh.

"Never assume you're the smartest person in the room, Naruto." Hiruzen said seriously. "You'll live longer that way.'

Naruto nodded seriously and frowned as he committed the words to memory.

Hiruzen allowed Naruto a few moments to process his advice before changing the subject.

"So. I hear you've been training with Hyuuga Hinata, tell me about it." He asked mildly.

"Well She failed Taijutsu an' I failed the bunshin so we been helpin' each other out."

"An excellent solution." Hiruzen said with a warm smile. "I heard that she did well in her clan bouts, have you made progress on the bunshin?'

Naruto grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, I can do it now!"He exclaimed.

"Very good, What was the problem?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

"Hinata said a was puttin' too much power inta the clones." Naruto explained.

"Interesting, so she helped you with your chakra control?" Hiruzen mused.

"Nah." Naruto disagreed with a shrug. "She jus' had me make a bunch'v 'em, s'long as I make 'bout fifty they come out fine. "

"But you have trouble making fewer than that?" Hiruzen asked with a frown.

"Yup." Naruto answered cheerfully.

"I think I did forty once but I was tired from trainin' all day. Can't remember ever going lower. " Naruto offered thoughtfully.

"...not an' havin' it work anyhow. " he amended a moment later.

"Interesting. " Hiruzen mused thoughtfully as he puffed on his pipe.

He gave Naruto an assessing look for a few moments before coming to a decision.

Hiruzen set his pipe down and stood up.

"Come Naruto, let's see if we can find a clone technique that suits you." Hiruzen said as he walked over to a large scroll in the corner.

"Alright Gramps!" Naruto agreed cheerfully.

"This is the scroll of forbidden techniques." Hiruzen said gravely as he hefted the large scroll. "It's a crime to read it without my permission or take it from this office."

"Cool!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. "So do I get to read it?"

"Before I show you this scroll I must ask you for a promise."Hiruzen said simply and smiled to himself as he immediately had Naruto's full attention.

"What's that Gramps? " Naruto asked seriously.

"You must never attempt one of the techniques in this scroll without my permission; many of these techniques are dangerous to their user."

"OK Gramps, I promise. " Naruto said gravely.

"Excellent."Hiruzen said as he sat at his desk and unrolled the scroll.

"Come, let's see what the scroll says about clones. " Hiruzen continued.  
Naruto walked over by Hiruzen and read over his shoulder.

"Kaze bunshin looks good." Naruto said excitedly.

"It's a solid clone so it is quite useful." Hiruzen agreed cheerfully.

"Great, let's learn that one!" Naruto said with a grin.

"Giving up on the academy then?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

"Whaddaya mean?" Naruto asked with a frown as he scratched his head.

"Kaze bunshin is made from air so your instructors won't be able to see it." Hiruzen pointed out mildly.

No way in hell he was giving an academy student an A ranked assassination technique.

"Oh." Naruto said as his shoulders sagged.

"You were hoping for a solid clone?" Hiruzen asked perceptively.

Naruto nodded glumly.

"Well Cheer up!" Hiruzen exclaimed. "There are other solid clone techniques.

"Really?" Naruto asked, perking up instantly.

Hiruzen nodded.

"What's the best one?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"I've always been partial to the kage bunshin myself." Hiruzen said thoughtfully.

"Can I learn that one?' Naruto pleaded.

"Well let's find out." Hiruzen said with a grin.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

The next afternoon Naruto made his way back to the Hyuuga compound.

As he walked into the dojo Naruto looked around carefully and gave Kohaku a nod when he spotted her leaning lazily against the wall in an out of the way corner.

Then he walked towards Hinata who was sitting quietly at what he was coming to think of as their bench.

Hinata was sitting quietly as she watched Neji and Lee spar.

"Hey Hinata. " Naruto said with a grin as he approached.

"Hello Naruto." Hinata replied with her own smile. "I think Lee is here to see you today."

"Eh?" Naruto said with his usual eloquence as he scratched his head and frowned.

"Lee is a budding taijutsu specialist, I think he's interested in the style you are developing." Hinata explained with another smile.

"Eh, I'll show 'im if he wants." Naruto said with a shrug.

A few moments later the spar ended with Neji knocking Lee down for a 3rd time and then carefully setting about helping the other boy up.

The two were grinning and talking animatedly with each other as they walked over to Naruto and Hinata.

"Hey Neji, hey Lee!" Naruto said with a wave.

"Hello Honored Uzumaki." Neji said with a half smile.  
"My teammate Lee was most interested in my description of our training session yesterday, he wanted to discuss it with you." Neji continued as he gestured to Lee.

"I would be most honored to assist you in refining your new fighting style and would like to learn more about your chakra strike technique." Lee said formally as he knelt stiffly before Naruto.

Naruto frowned and scratched his head.

"Why'd ya wanna learn my chakra strike?" He said bemusedly. "It's nothin' special." He continued seemingly oblivious to the reactions of disbelief from every Hyuuga who heard him.

"I- I'm- I can't mould chakra." Lee admitted. "I can grasp it, I can project it, I can't mould it."  
"So I can't use most jutsu, but my sensei thinks I might be able to use your technique; that it may be the only one I can use." Lee continued as he looked hopefully up at Naruto as years of teasing, degradation and rejection bubbled up inside him. "Please, I'll give anything I have-"

"Get up." Naruto said harshly.

"But-" Lee began.

"Get up!" Naruto snapped.

Lee jerked to his feet dejectedly; he'd really thought Naruto was different.

Lee's musings were interrupted by Naruto poking him angrily in the chest.

"Lemme tell ya somethin' Rock Lee!" Naruto said angrily as he continued poking Lee in the chest with one hand and waving his fist in the air with the other. "Uzumaki Naruto helps his friends- all they gotta do is ask! So next time ya feel like ya gotta crawl on the ground like a frog in fronta somebody come find me so I kin put my foot up yer ass!"

Lee blinked and considered this for a moment.

"So you'll teach me then?" He asked hopefully.

"Yer goddamn right I will! Can ya do tha leaf trick from the academy?" Naruto  
replied.

Lee nodded.

"Great!" Naruto said with a grin. "Can ya do it with yer hands?"

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Shinichiro Mizuki sat alone at his desk as he filed reports and paperwork for the coming term.

He didn't especially like his job at the academy, but it allowed him to subtly feed certain promising students to specific jounin instructors, which allowed students who should pass to be failed and quietly recruited into Danzo's illegal branch of ANBU.

Mizuki wasn't really interested in Root for its own sake, but his employers were very interested indeed.

Reliable intelligence from inside Konoha was scarce, reliable intelligence about the names and faces of new recruits to a secret splinter group inside Konoha doubly so.

Reliable access to the names, faces, and personnel files of jounin who cooperated with such a group was positively outrageous, and people were happy to pay it.

Even taking a lower price from each buyer for not giving them exclusive rights to the information, and also paying each of his clients along with a few other parties who were both reliable and discreet an ongoing retainer for an emergency extraction should he ever need it Mizuki was able to live like a king even though the majority of his wealth was outside the city.

Why Mizuki could afford to have sake and geisha come to him every night, not that he needed to do such a thing; his clients were very grateful for his services and each would usually arrange for a discreet geisha to visit him once or twice a month to ensure his continued loyalty.

Mizuki's musings were shaken from the sweet young orphan that had visited him courtesy of the Mizukage the night before by the wording on the memo in his hands.

Mizuki shook himself and read the memo again.

"Henceforth all graduating classes shall be arranged to contain at least one team meeting minimum standards to be trained for Sabotage, Assassination, Infiltration, and Demolition operations as well as Tactical Interdiction, Disruption, and Extraction operations huh." Mizuki mused to himself.

He rubbed his chin and thought carefully for a few moments.

TIDE and SAID operations were a common part of Konoha's wartime doctrine; keep the enemy from doing things like treating wounded, moving troops or supplies, training recruits, growing food, obtaining weapons or making effective decisions and things at the front lines were usually pretty easy.

For a war anyway.

The thing that puzzled Mizuki was that TIDE and SAID operations were usually confined to ANBU and a few very skilled general service ninja unless absolutely necessary.

The only time general service nin regularly saw such missions was during a war.

Mizuki froze for a moment and read the memo again.

War.

Mizuki carefully filed the memo, then handled the next report.

As he was working on his second report he started making seemingly idle notes on scratch paper where he carefully noted down lists of supplies for the coming academy term.

He had some shopping to do later.

After all, his employers needed a reason to keep sending supple young orphans to him in the night.

-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-/=-

Daisuke hummed happily as he puttered behind the counter sorting various small items that he kept there as he carefully kept an eye on a couple of customers that were browsing his wares.

Daisuke's attention was drawn to the entrance when he heard the bell on the door ring.

He saw a blond nin in black gear with a green flak jacket stroll casually up to the counter.

"Hello, I need to order supplies for the academy." Mizuki said cooly.

Daisuke nodded as he replayed a very distinct set of instructions his backers had given him.

"I see sir, will this be the usual order?" He asked a touch nervously.

Mizuki shot Daisuke a piercing look.

"No," He said flatly. "We will need a few special pieces."  
Mizuki then very deliberately placed a note face down on the counter and slid it across to the other man.

Daisuke picked the note up and read it and then nodded.

"I'll see to it, the supplies will be ready a week before the term starts." He said with a wan smile.


End file.
